Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century by Thomas X. Hammes

From the Publisher

"4GW (Fourth Generation Warfare) is the only kind of war America has ever lost. And we have done so three times - in Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia. This form of warfare has also defeated the French in Vietnam and Algeria, and the USSR in Afghanistan...As the only Goliath left in the world, we should be worried that the world's Davids have found a sling and stone that work." - Chapter 1, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century

The War in Iraq. The War on Terror. These types of "asymmetrical" warfare are the conflicts of the 21st century - and show how difficult it is for the world's only remaining superpower to battle insurgents and terrorists who will fight unconventionally in the face of superior military power.

This change in military conflict may seem sudden. But in his new book, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, Thomas X. Hammes, United States Marine Corps, details how "Fourth Generation Warfare" or "4GW" has evolved over decades, with powerful military forces from economically advanced nations being defeated by seemingly weaker opponents.

Hammes, a full colonel on active duty, spent years training insurgents in various locations around the world. He was stationed in Somalia in the early 1990s before the withdrawal of American troops after the events in Mogadishu. In The Sling and the Stone, he uses this extensive experience and his lifelong study of military history to illuminate how war is evolution, not revolution, and that a "weaker" opponent will continually evolve to use ways to avoid direct military engagement. Instead of winning militarily, an insurgency will work to test the political will of a more powerful nation to stay the course during a war. "We win the battles," he states, "but we lose the war."

Hammes has seen the capability of insurgents firsthand. "I was particularly impressed with two aspects of the men I met," he writes. "First was their utter determination to continue the struggle despite the odds. They were not deterred by fear of death...The second outstanding trait was the remarkable ingenuity they displayed for overcoming problems. I found insurgents are not impressed with conventional power. Any nation that assumes it is inherently superior to another is setting itself up for disaster."

The U.S. has not properly prepared, Hammes contends, for the military needs and political will that will be required to win a "low tech conflict" that is outside the expectations of the Department of Defense's 20th century planning for a short-term conflict with a high-tech, symmetrical enemy like the Soviet Union. Featuring an overview of the first three generations of modern war, Hammes focuses on examples of the evolution of 4GW, and how it will require decades instead of months or years to win. He also examines in detail "transnational" enemies like Al Qaeda, and how the U.S. focus on high-tech weapons designed to overpower an enemy in a short amount of time means little when the enemy has a different concept of the time the conflict will last.

The Sling and the Stone is must reading for anyone who wants to know what it will take for the West to "win" the war on terror. The signs for how it will be fought (and either won or lost) have been developing for decades, and the world's remaining superpower needs to heed the many examples from the recent past in order to secure a lasting victory in the future. As a leading expert on insurgency, asymmetrical warfare, and the unconventional methods used by insurgents like those in Iraq and Afghanistan today, Hammes explains in full detail what to expect from the enemy in the first major war of the 21st century.

Library Journal

Retired marine colonel Hammes maintains that modern warfare has evolved in four "generations," moving from the massed citizen armies of Napoleonic warfare to the apogee of firepower in World War I to the triumph of maneuver warfare in World War II. Finally, Hammes brings us up to fourth-generation warfare, or 4GW, from Mao to Vietnam, from the Sandinistas to the present. These conflicts show that superior political will can wear down a militarily superior adversary. A 4GW opponent fights across political, economic, social, and military spectrums to sap an adversary's will to continue fighting. Despite the emergence of transnational 4GW opponents like al Qaeda, the absence of a credible conventional threat, and past 4GW experiences in Vietnam, Somalia, and now Iraq, the U.S. defense establishment remains fixated on defeating a 3GW enemy. Instead of expensive weapons, we must, according to Hammes, invest in human capital, developing expertise in an adversary's language, culture, and history. Hammes offers a compellingly reasoned and supported argument that we need to reconsider how to defeat nonconventional threats to our national security. Recommended for military history and national security collections.-Edward J. Metz, USACGSC Combined Arms Research Lib., Ft. Leavenworth, KS Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Robert Oakley
Robert Oakley, former U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and former U.S. ambassador to Somalia, Pakistan, and Zaire
"Colonel Hammes provides a great service by bringing war fighting back to reality. He strips away the misleading fog created by the latest iteration of the U.S. tendency to believe that technology and weaponry win wars, not people and ideas. By looking at the past unconventional wars he shows us what to expect in the future, where there will be conventional challenge to U.S. superiority but a return to the strategy and tactics used so successfully by opponents such as Ho Chi Minh against the French first, then the U.S."

Bernard Trainor
Bernard Trainor, Lieutenant General, USMC (Ret.), NBC News military analyst, co-author of The Generals
"Colonel Hammes cuts to the quick in defining the conundrum of dealing with 21st century warfare, the competing concepts of its nature, and its management. His is a controversial analysis which is bound to raise the hackles of today's techno warriors."

General Anthony Zinni
General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), former CENTCOM commander
"Based in history and current events, Thomas Hammes explains the nasty, long-term, broad-spectrum wars we have fought and will continue to fight. It stands in sharp contrast to the short, high-tech, clean war the defense department is planning for. He focuses on how to win the war rather than just winning battles. Understanding the type of war you are fighting is the first step to winning. This book will help you understand."

Col. John Greenwood
Col. John Greenwood, USMC (Ret.), former editor of Marine Corps Gazette
"For nearly a quarter century, T.X. Hammes has been one of the Marine Corps' most thoughtful students on the evolution of warfare, the ever-changing threats that face us, and the adjustments needed at every level if the U.S. military is to meet the challenges that lie ahead. A blunt, straightforward author, his book reflects candor and insight. He explains the nature of the emerging style of warfare and explains why the current transformation planning is missing the mark."

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Table of Contents