Open-Source Warfare

WARFIGHTING 101

If we understand what politics really boils down to, it is about group competition for power. What is power? The ability to exert your will upon the world.

 Warfare is the continuation of politics by other means. War is a continuum, with varying levels of intensity, ranging from small skirmishes to total war. One can therefore lower this intensity and this power competition from warfare and extract this progression down to the realm of politics. 

What then differentiates politics from warfare? Warfare is when the competing groups form two irreconcilable wills. Who would deny that the west today is seeing the establishment of two irreconcilable poles that are competing for the destiny of Western Civilization?

The term "4th Generation Warfare" is becoming more and more relevant as this polarization escalates up the continuum of conflict.

What 4thGenWar really boils down to is a blurring of the lines between war and politics. Civilian and combatant. 4thGenWar is characterized by a decentralization of martial capacity. The state is not the sole proprietor of military capability. Non-state and transnational actors can produce this capability organically. This is nothing new to history. There are plenty of examples of asymmetrical and guerilla warfare conducted historically. While this is not a new concept, it is gaining elevated significance in the interconnected world of the 21st century and will likely continue to do so. The traditional Westphalian conception of the legitimacy of power, and by extension the use of force emanating from the nation-state is fading away. Another key element in 4GW is the cultural aspect of power-politics. The focus is no longer to destroy the opposing state whilst largely ignoring the civilian population. Rather, the battleground is now directly over the cultural influence of the civilian population and this battle manifests itself in every cultural domain.

“Here, the past is prologue. Much of what state-armed forces now face in Fourth Generation wars is simply war as it was fought before the rise of the state and the Peace of Westphalia. Once again, clans, tribes, ethnic groups, cultures, religions and gangs are fighting wars, in more and more parts of the world. They fight using many different means, not only conventional engagements and battles. Once again, conflicts have become many-sided rather than two-sided. Officers and enlisted men who find themselves caught up in such conflicts quickly discover they are difficult to understand and even harder to win.”

― William S. Lind, 4th Generation Warfare Handbook

There was an article put out on the Small Wars Journal called 'Operationalizing the Science of the Human Domain in Great Power Competition for Special Operations Forces'

To provide some context, the article is a justification of Special Operations Forces going into a projected post-GWOT era of Great Power competition. This shift in American national security interests has led to proposals of restructuring the military in a shift from a SOF-centric Joint Force towards a more conventional military. This article argues that SOF will remain relevant because 4GW is now a defining feature of conflict and Great Power competition. SOF is the most capable of operating in the grey zone of conflict where the lines between power-politics and warfare are blurred. They have the ability to navigate the human dimension and influence partner nations in Foreign Internal Defense or on the flip side of the coin, Unconventional Warfare in hostile states.

The article highlights the unique ability of Artificial Intelligence and computing to analyze 'Big Data' which are data sets too large for individuals to look at on their own. The article then goes on to say that it isn't enough to look at these data sets without context, but that SOF must be trained in understanding 'Thick data' that is, understanding how these data sets are connected to phenomena and the why behind Big Data. It involves understanding traditional societies, power-politics, in-group out-group dynamics and competition, and stuff of that nature.

The funny thing is traditional societies that still have a shared sense of culture already understand all of this implicitly. If you showed this article to a Shiite, Sunni, or Kurd in Iraq they'd probably laugh at you. This stuff is simply common sense for the majority of history. Only in the neoliberal west do we have to 'relearn' these dynamics. This is because the neoliberal, multicultural world we've artificially molded believes in the plasticity of human nature. In the field of warfighting, the consequences of ignoring these cultural realities and power dynamics can be fatal. So now we find SOF focusing on 'relearning' these long-forgotten lessons for the sake of Great Power competition, only they are expected to do so as detached observers. This 'relearning' of shared cultural consciousness is precisely what white people need to undergo. How long until these Spec Ops apply this process to their own societies?

STRATEGIZING PATHWAYS TO REVOLUTION

Pictured above is a simple guide on how to start conceptualizing a plan of action. First, you must have a realistic understanding of what's occurring. Once you have a handle on that you can then visualize what conditions your desired end state should look like. This shouldn't just be an unrealistic long-term ideal, rather the focus should be practical, realistic end-states you can reasonably achieve. You must then understand the obstacles preventing the achievement of goals and develop a plan of action. This should be done on every level from the grand strategy civilization-scale down to your local area and everything in between if you want to have a thorough understanding of your operational environment and how you fit into everything. If you ever move to a new operational environment you must do this again for that particular region.

Applying William S. Lind's 4GW to our struggle, the key lies in culture-building. Structures, organizations, insurgencies, movements, guerillas, parties, and people can all be killed/destroyed. However, if you have a strong cultural substratum, a culture of resistance, there will inevitably arise future movements that'll replace the lost ones. This is why the War on Terror is doomed to failure from the start. War on Terror? What? War on a tactic? That's absurd! It's not a war on terror, it's a war on radical Islamic culture, yet, one that is fought under the false neoliberal pretext of "fighting terrorism" so it's not even dedicating the necessary resources that would be required to seriously destroy the radical Islamic culture it is fighting de-facto but not de-jure. This goes back to Neoliberal belief in human plasticity, but that's a tangent. For now, the greatest lesson to be learned from GWOT and the 9/11 wars is not the strength of transnational insurgencies, rather the strength of strong cultures of resistance that form a transnational substratum, acting as a wellspring from which future movements and structures will arise. If defeated materially, these men against time transcend by becoming a part of the shared cultural memory. They become MYTHOS and inspire future generations.

Here I am going to recommend you read two articles before delving any further so we are on the same page. First is the 'How to build a Fren Movement' and the second is 'The Strategy of Negentropic Guerilla Warfare'

Now that we are on the same page, let us continue. We've made an infographic on how we can practically apply these lessons. The idea is to have Fascist cores form centers of gravity in various regions throughout the west. These Fascist cores should purity spiral within their core, but should also seek to become Key Influencers locally, whilst also networking with other cores globally. The key is to "spin a web" of various Nationalist, Revolutionary Conservative, and Traditionalist elements in their areas that can eventually be transformed into Resistance Networks. This is oftentimes more of a culture-building process than an activist one, though all domains of culture-struggle will be necessarily included.

REGIONAL SCOPE OF FOCUS

Your focus should be on becoming a regional player first. You should still network transnationally just so we are all on the same page and to forge bonds internationally, but your real focus should be to become a key influencer in your local area. If recruitment efforts are too broad, then there is no ability for activity in real life. Network Density is required to conduct meaningful activities. In fact, the activities you can conduct are a result of Network Density and Resources. You should always seek to expand your resources, and you should maintain a close-enough Network Density. Down the road of escalation, having Network Density that is too close could be putting all your eggs in one basket so keep that in mind.

INTELLIGENCE - FUEL FOR OPERATIONS

The title of this article is Open-Source Warfare because much of the tactics outlined in this guide rely heavily upon- or rather, are greatly improved through the Open-Source nature of 21st century networking All of this can be done without any of that, but it certainly makes the potential for these activities much easier and accessible to anyone with a phone. As escalation increases, we must eventually turn away from all of this and remain capable of doing all of this without any of these technics but for now, we should take advantage of these capabilities.

Intelligence is the fuel for operations and in this case, fuel for breaking out of stagnation. Every regional Resistance Network should have OSINT focused locally and as with everything else, this should be reproduced at higher levels up the chain all the way up to the civilization-scale.

Having local OSINT allows the Resistance Network to uncover the entropic actions of the system, whatever it be. You can then use the following as a model to break out of stagnation if you are in a relatively stable region that is inactive. You first produce Intelligence out of this Information. Intelligence is the finished product of a thoroughly analyzed and contextualized raw Information. After you have Intelligence you then disseminate it to the audience (whether that's your core or broader Nationalists in the area). You get the audience riled up and agitated. You then develop plans to counter whatever entropic action the system conducted. Whether that's a march, rally, a show of force, putting up propaganda, speeches, [REDACTED] whatever. You have to gauge it with the particular context, we're leaving things as undefined as possible to allow you guys to fill in the blanks. It's the same principle as Educate, Agitate, Organize. Whatever operations you conduct should be Equal, Opposite, and Proportional.

By educating, agitating, and organizing your milieu you produce a matrix of progression towards conflict. Actions cause reactions. This is a cycle of conflict that is forming. An action produces through cause and effect a matrix of possibilities with which to react. These allow for opportunities for escalation, de-escalation, and exploitation. There is no grand battleplan that can see every action and reaction and plan through the whole process to the end-state. It's simply a bunch of different actors acting and then seeing what happens in response and then acting accordingly. If there is already an aura of action-reaction in your area related to our struggle you can simply join in the unfolding conflict. The above was more geared towards a stagnant region that seems "boring". You need to use OSINT and other methods to identify points of contact that you then bring to the forefront in that region and make an issue out of through dissemination of the information. From there you start to act and react and boom... You've created a crack in stability proportional to the intensity of your actions.