5GW Theory Timeline

After referencing a discussion that occurred at John Robb’s Weblog, Dan Abbott draws a line between war and politics, suggesting that the two ideas or types of conflict should remain separate to avoid confusion.  Also, the suggestion is made that politics may also follow a generational framework; e.g., “5GP” might be thought of as “5th Generation Politics.”

During the discussion and debate that ensues, Dan Abbott and others begin to consider the generational changes as representative of a decrease in kinetics for each succeeding generation in the theory, leading Abbott to postulate “a logarithmic scale” for the variable “G” representing the level or magnitude of kinetics for each generation of warfare.  Excerpt from a comment made by Dan Abbott:

Which does beg the questions: at what point is the G high enough that it actually becomes politics? Or does the bar change, as societies more used to peace call more of what was once “politics” “war”?

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