Broken research means future failure

A quick check on the health of US Army thinking yields a Director of Research for the Strategic Studies Institute that thinks 4GW is a myth (this has been circulated before, but I am exploring the implications).

Dr Antulio J. Echevarria II critiques the theory of fourth-generation warfare, examining its problematic assumptions and logical flaws. He argues that this theory is hopelessly flawed and that its proponents undermine their credibility by subscribing to it.

A critique is fine, but the last sentence in the above is particularly flawed. If this is from the SSI's Director of Research, it's a good bet that the entire research agenda is hopelessly off-course. Perhaps the only way to rectify this is to flush the entire institute and start afresh.

Comments

[Andy]

John

Remember that this is an Army that took 6 years to produce a new Operations Field Manual despite being involved in two wars.

This is an Army that shelved all the counterinsurgency lessons learned into SF and simply told everyone else to forget about Vietnam.

This is an Army that took over three years producing a new Counterinsurgency Manual (the initial "research" started in 2004 and the manual was released in 2007).

Even Frank Hoffman has tried to minimize 4GW in his "Hybrid War" brief. He states that the theorists involved with it (which really means Lind) have not provided anything to help defeat it. Which is untrue - the FMFM 1-A was written and revised at least three times since 03, and Lind's Marine seminar with Captains at Quantico has also produced a number of Tactical Decision Exercises, and I think they have been working on a Tactics manual as well.

Of course, Lind does not get paid a dime, the seminar he runs is in addition to all the other coursework the Marines have to do (it's not credited), and Lind doesn't belong to RAND, the Army War College, Quantico, or any governmental think tank. In simpler terms, he's not one of them, and so he must be discredited because he is a threat. Anyone who is a threat to the funding must be discredited...this is SOP for the military these days.

You'd think the stupid bastards, after 7 years of stalemate, would have offered Lind and others positions at the War College, SAMS, or some other think tank...it just shows how inward focused these people are.

[Salamanca]

The three 4GW manuals drafted so far are available through Defense and the National Interest:

http://www.d-n-i.net/dni/strategy-and-force-employment/fourth-generation-warfare-manuals/

[John Robb]

Andy, the entire thing just torques me.

[zenpundit]

I read Echevarria's critique when it first came out and any fair criticisms that he raised about 4GW ( and it is possible to raise some - military theory ain't particle physics)was drowned out by a tone of shrill hysterics.

Or perhaps more accurately, the sound of a high church official hurling righteous condemnation upon the heretics.