Fourth Generation Warfare and the Cultural Divide

摘要

While the Global War on Terror rages, another insidious conflict plays out not in traditional battlespace, but in the hearts and minds of the broad spectrum of modern civilization. For thousands of years people have warred over ideas, over fissures and chasms between differing ideologies, over religious and sectarian tensions, over poorly timed political statements, over art and poetry, and even over dates on calendars. Where history proves that the volatility of these issues can unite or shatter fragile unions, mutually inclusive issues that once were the only bonds between different cultures are now the last tenuous ligaments between societies torn internally by radical ideas and subversive threats. These links are the fronts in a culture war that rages daily across the entire spectrum of state-to-state and culture-to-culture relationships. In newspapers and on television around the globe, an emotionally explosive war rages: the underdog status quo of civility, mutual concern, and respect for inclusive facets of civilization versus militant extremism, subversive multiculturalism, and apathetic political agendas. The fronts of this battle lie not in the deserts of the Southwest Asia or the jungles of South America, but in global educational institutions, political and diplomatic forums, religious establishments, informational media outlets, and capitalist marketplaces. This paper will present a brief relevant history of American culture and the multicultural movement in the West, examine global influences in the culture war, and outline the Islamist and Salafist movements and their aggregate effect on the culture war played out in the United States and abroad. Finally, a presentation of possible results and prescriptions for positive outcomes will be presented in the context of the Global War on Terror from a Fourth Generation Warfare perspective.