4GW is short for
Fourth-Generation Warfare, a term first used in 1989 by a team of U.S. military
analysts to describe conflict characterized, as Infogalactic puts it, by a “blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians”.
In simplest terms, a
4G war is any conflict in which one of the actors is not a state but a
sub-population of some sort, ethnic or otherwise. 4GW’s goals are usually
complex and long term, and may be achieved through guerrilla tactics,
terrorism, psy-ops, economic pressure, media manipulation and/or other non-traditional
means.