Language and Cultural Skills for Air Operations in Fourth-Generation Warfare

<p>It is important for Airmen to understand the nature of 4GW: what it is who uses it and some of the contributing factors. Because this is the kind of war where simply destroying physical targets is not likely to contribute to our success understanding our adversaries and the local population of the countries in which we operate is also necessary for victory. Greater familiarity with their languages and cultures will help us in this endeavor. The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff are taking steps to determine the language requirements of the combatant commanders assess the language and culture skills of all service personnel and DOD civilians and develop a professional corps of competent language speakers. The Air Force is making progress toward meeting the OSD and CJCS language and culture goals but Airmen also need to understand why these skills are important in the employment of airpower. Airpower can be used effectively against our 4GW opponents and language and culture skills can assist in these efforts.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>