Fifth generation warfare (5GW) is conducted primarily through non-kinetic military action, such as social engineering, disinformation, cyberattacks, and the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and fully autonomous systems. It is ideological, psychological, biological warfare; at some point it may feature ‘hot’ or even nuclear war. It is all these things; but is it meaningful to characterise it as ‘spiritual’ warfare?
“First, a strict spatial partitioning: the closing of the town and its outlying districts, a prohibition to leave the town on pain of death, the killing of all stray animals; the division of the town into distinct quarters, each governed by an intendant. Each street is placed under the authority of a syndic, who keeps it under surveillance; if he leaves the street, he will be condemned to death. On the appointed day, everyone is ordered to stay indoors: it is forbidden to leave on pain of death.”