United States Marine Corps and Fourth Generation of Warfare: A Square Peg in an Unidentifiable Hole

摘要

The United States Marine Corps is evolving itself into inadequacy. For the past 60+ years, since midway through World War II, the Marine Corps has sought to become a maneuver warfare force, an ideal concept for third generation warfare. Recent world conflicts, however, have reverted to an earlier form of warfare characterized by asymmetric, population based tactics and strategies, and the loss of legitimacy of nation state powers. For the sake of argument, this will be referred to as fourth generation warfare, or 4GW1. That being the case, the United States Marine Corps has an obligation to re- evaluate itself culturally, organizationally, and systematically in order to better prepare itself to fight and win a 4GW conflict.