5GW Theory Timeline

[A pdf version of Unrestricted Warfare can be found on Scribd.com @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/5714/Unrestricted-Warfare]

A book written by Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, two colonels in the People’s Liberation Army of China, Unrestricted Warfare outlines weaknesses in the U.S. military strategy — which, according to the authors, evolves only as a response to increased capabilities permitted by improved technology — and outlines various asymmetric, non-kinetic, or other unconventional methods for prosecuting a war against an opponent.  This would include economic mean, legal means, terrorism, and so forth:  I.e., the “weapons” of warfare need not be defined solely as the technological hardware traditionally used by militaries;  warfare need not be restricted to the traditional concepts of warfare founded upon direct destruction enabled by destructive technology.

Excerpt:

As we see it, a single man-made stock-market crash, a single computer virus invasion, or a single rumor or scandal that results in a fluctuation in the enemy country’s exchange rates or exposes the leaders of an enemy country on the Internet, all can be included in the ranks of new-concept weapons. A new concept of weapons provides direction for new-concept weapons, while the new-concept weapons give fixed forms to the new concept of weapons. With regard to the flood of new-concept weapons, technology is no longer the main factor, and the true underlying factor is a new concept regarding weapons.

What must be made clear is that the new concept of weapons is in the process of creating weapons that are closely linked to the lives of the common people. Let us assume that the first thing we say is: The appearance of new-concept weapons will definitely elevate future warfare to a level which is hard for the common people — or even military men — to imagine. Then the second thing we have to say should be: The new concept of weapons will cause ordinary people and military men alike to be greatly astonished at the fact that commonplace things that are close to them can also become weapons with which to engage in war. We believe that some morning people will awake to discover with surprise that quite a few gentle and kind things have begun to have offensive and lethal characteristics.

Excerpt:

Over the last 20 years, information technology, computer viruses, internet, financial derivation tools, and other sources, as well as the technology of non-military means even more so reveal the difficulties of predicting the prospect for the outcome of tomorrow’s wars. However, to date, for the vast majority of soldiers or high-ranking military officers utilizing the element combination method to carry out warfare is often a non-conscious action. Therefore, their combinations often remain on the level of weapons, deployment methods and the battlefield, and the drawn-up war prospects are also mostly only limited to the military domain and revel in it. Only those trailblazing military geniuses are able to stand alone in breaking convention, breaking through limitations and consciously combining all of the means available at the time to play the ageless masterpiece by changing the tonality of the war.

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