Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It

Author - Daniel H. Abbott ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Nimble Books was reviewed on 12-Dec-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books. Dan was kind enough to let me read his monograph Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity. It´s an excellent read with an interesting argument:

"By ruling out destruction, conquest, and neutralization, the Apostle [Paul] and the Christ forced the faithful to co-opt the Empire. Roman counter-insurgency (COIN) experience had taught the Empire how to defeat enemies who hated it, but not how to vanquish an enemy that loved it. And indeed, by AD 313 the Roman Empire had submitted itself to the Christian faith. The Christians accomplished this by denying the Romans the chance to fight in a way they were used to. Rather, the Christians were a functioning 4GW army, relying on a highly-motivated corps of men and women that refused to fall for the tricks of Roman COIN."

tdaxp then provides a good overview of xGW/Generations of War for the reader who is unfamiliar with those concepts.

tdaxp then details how the Christians broke Rome´s will to resist, pointing out that The Lord and Paul both understood Roman COIN (Paul was part of the Temple Police and an experienced persecutor/suppressor of troublesome minorities. Whether he was the first COIN operator to see the Light is unrecorded). Rome couldn´t be be defeated in conventional battle by any means a Jewish sect had at its disposal. The long record of failed Jewish revolts from Pompey the Great to Hadrian both before and after The Lord´s life demonstrated that clearly (to everyone but the Jews that is). tdaxp argues that Christianity had to adopt an alternate strategy. Time would wear down the Roman state. If Christianity could avoid being physically wiped out by Rome, it would eventually win.

tdaxp argues that some Roman authorities and quislings saw this. One quisling, Joseph Caiaphas, the priest responsible for the Crucifixion, clearly saw The Lord´s political threat:

"And one of them, [named] Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not."

Where Caiaphas saw the end of the Jewish nation (and the rule of the Sadducees), Diocletian saw the end of Rome. tdaxp argues that this was because the early Church would replace the Roman system where the state and human male authority figures was supreme over religion with a system where the state and human relationships were subject to the ultimate authority of God (even if God commanded that Christians should subordinate themselves to the state, God would still be the one offering the marching orders). Caiaphas and Diocletian decided that if a few undesirables had to die to keep the Roman power architecture alive than that was an acceptable price to pay. Pilate plays the Diocletian role in Taylor Caldwell´s novel I, Judas. When Pilate´s wife implores him not to execute Jesus, Pilate recognizes that Jesus´s subversion is not a parochial Jewish problem but a Roman problem as well: this obscure carpenter´s message can infect Gentile as well as Jew. Pilate orders Jesus´s execution because of this accurate perception of the threat.

tdaxp has a section I found particularly useful on the subversive power of women, an aspect of warfare that´s overlooked by most war commentators (a notable exception is Kautilya in The Arthashastra). Paul designed a strategy that used men, argues tdaxp, to spread the Good News in a loose network and women to form tight networks to support raising children for Christ. The family, instead of being an extension of the Roman state with the pater familias standing in for the Emperor, would become a subversive breeding ground for the Christian anti-state. I´ve seen similar arguments that one reason orthodox Christianity won out over its heretical variants like Gnosticism is that it gave women a valuable role (and played a valuable role by domesticating the male of the species).

When Constantine made Christianity his new tool in solidifying his control over the Rome (Under this sign (the cross) you shall conquer), the Christians were able, with occasional bumps like Julian the Apostate), to use the machinery of state to spread catholic (whole) and orthodox (true) Christianity at the expense of pagans and heretics. Christianity had roadblocks in the future, facing the integrated vendor solution of Islam but that was the burden of incumbency, not of subversion.

Read the whole thing for the surprise conclusion.¤

2) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books. This book is about the rise of Christianity as a form of revolution -- an overthrow of the existing Roman order. The author argues that Christians carried out this revolution by loving their enemies and supporting -- rather than fighting -- the existing Roman political-social order. This revolution was then met with a failed Roman counterinsurgency. The author uses the modern theoretical framework of fourth generation warfare (4GW) and counterinsurgency (COIN) to explain these events.

Early on in the book Daniel Abbott lays out a framework for generational change. Abbott believes each higher generation of war operates deeper into an enemies Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop. He states the Christian Roman-era revolution was a fourth generation of war. It wasn´t fully clear as to how 4GW is analogous to the Observe-Orient part of the loop. The author´s explanation is that 4GW blurs the line between peace and war. However, it isn´t fully clear to me as to how this blurring relates to going "deeper" into the loop. The author raises, what seems to be, another requirement of 4GW -- breaking the will of the enemy. That seems to be an adequate requirement for 4GW, however, it doesn´t seem to be essential. An actor could break the will of an enemy in numerous ways -- like attrition-style bombing -- and not be fourth generation war. This suggests that the author´s definition of 4GW needs to be more rigorously defined. Also, John Boyd modelled the OODA after the scientific methodological process. The author´s model for generational war is problematic insofar as a 5GW enemy can avoid the very process -- observation -- a strategic theorist could use to identify a particular generation, which raises questions about how one could support or falsify the theory. A facet of a good inference to best explanation is being able to explain observations. If a theory purports to describe phenomenon that cannot be observed then how do the theorists go on to explain a non-observable event? However, the purpose of the book was not to explain the generations so much as to describe 4GW in early Christianity. So it would be unfair to expect the author to do a complete evaluation of the model and the theory.

Another highlight of the book was a key aspect of Christianity´s power -- patience. The author argues that Christians combined patience with long-term strategy to topple the Romans. For example, they waited-out the barbarian attacks and continued to support the Roman power infrastructure knowing their time might come, which reminded me of the Akira Kurosawa movie Yojimbo. The classicist Robert Greene has also written a number of books on patience being a key for obtaining power and that impatience is a principle impediment to power. Abbott´s thoughts certainly add to Greene´s ideas as well. Perhaps a major weakness that 4GW exploits is a society, and political elite, that lack patience.

The most interesting part of the book was the discussion of Penetration-Isolation-Subdue
/Submit-Reorient-Reharmonise (PISRR) steps to victory. Abbott does a great job of explaining this from the perspective of Christian strategy. The final chapters of the book focus on individual areas of the PISRR. The only problem I could find in this part of the discussion was that the author seemed to make a hasty generalisation from one statement by Paul to an entire theory about the role of women in Christian strategy (Chapter 5). The author would need more sources and observed instances to back up those claims.

Is the book true? As stated above I would have liked to seen more sources to evaluate what the author was saying. The major source for the book is the Bible itself. Other sources are written documents as well. Some individuals might have a problem with this, especially cross-disciplinary readers, for instance archaeologists, who analyse history from a variety of sources. However, Abbott does point to more research in this area, such as Rodney Stark, at the end of the book. I would also recommend reading Volume 1 of Michael Mann´s ´The Sources of Social Power´ that has a chapter on Christianity as a "decentralized civilizing community" that spread on the back of Roman strengths like trade routes. It is a nice companion to Abbott´s book.

Finishing up, this is an interesting book. It has some methodological weaknesses but like all inductive theories it´ll either be strengthened or rejected in time. The author has great potential to write more about the unique generational war model based on the OODA loop and I hope he will write a book about it. The author also lays out a number of people who would be interested in the book. I think the following individuals would also like it:

* Those interested in the history of revolution.
* Those interested in case studies of early political economy particularly ideological power versus military and economic power.
* Those interested in nonviolent military strategy.¤

3) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books.
The brief book outlines Abbott´s application of generational war theory and contemporary military strategy to Christianity´s peaceful conquest of the Roman Empire. Rome was extremely successful at defending against military and political threats. Christianity succeeded because it didn´t set out to conquer Rome, but to co-opt it. They succeeded because they "loved their enemies" and turned every Christian man and woman into a cultural warrior. Less than three centuries later, they won.

My background in these areas is very limited, and alphabet-soup of strategic theories (PISRR, OODA, etc.) can be intimidating. Fortunatly, Strategies takes each theory one step at a time and makes it easy for laypersons to comprehend things like a ´Penetrate-Isloate-Subvert/Subdue-Reorient-Reharmonize´ loop. This is the book´s biggest strength in my opinion. Many, if not most, of its complex ideas are best illustrated graphically, and Abbott is not afraid to supplement his explanations with a plethora of clear, simply constructed graphs and charts. Even if early Christianity in particular is not of interest to you, Strategies is worth picking up just for the clear explanations of military theory that is relevant in today´s political debates - Counter-Insurgency Operations (COIN) in particular. Other examples, such as Vichy France and IMB, assist the reader´s understanding.

Its hard to quibble with Abbott´s theory. I would have liked a slightly longer book, that supported some of his claims more. Descriptively, 4GW has great explanatory power for the rise of Christianity in Rome, but its difficult for me to believe that the apostles had the strategic co-option of the Empire in mind when they penned Matthew 5:41, Ephesians 1:10 or 1 Timothy 2:12. Strategies is for the most part a work of political science and history, but it slides into theology at points, especially in Chapter 7. Although Abbott is right, some more support for his characterizations of the world´s three major religions is needed. It wouldn´t be too difficult for someone wanting to pick a fight to find Islamic thinkers opposed to legalism or to bring up 2.256 in the Koran.

However, these problems are only a couple steps about spotting typos. The book is a must for anyone with an interest in broad war theory, counter-insurgency and the rise of Christianity, and makes current ideas accessible to those with little background in them.¤

4) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books. What if I told you that Jesus and St. Paul were the architects of the greatest insurgent (fourth-generation warfare) campaign ever? What if I used Scripture and contemporary Roman records to show exactly how they did it (and how the Romans recognized the threat and responded, ultimately failing)? That´s exactly what Daniel Abbott does in "Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It". In an intellectual tour de force, Dan not only convincingly explains how precepts such as "If someone forces to you to go one mile, go with him two miles" and "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a
man; she must be silent" served as foundations for the Christian revolution; he then explains how Muhammed designed Islam to defeat Christianity. And to top things off Dan analogizes the two religions to Microsoft and IBM. At just over 40 pages Dan´s book is a short, clear, and profound read. It WILL change the way you look at history, current events, and the future, whether you´re an atheist, agnostic, or a practicing Catholic like me. I realize that last sentence defies credulity, but the ideas in this book ARE that powerful!
¤

5) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books. Dan has done a remarkable job applying contemporary theories of warfare and network science to the early Christian / late Roman era. The most notable strength in Revolutionary Strategies is his inventive correlation of the defensive strategies employed by Caiaphas (the chief antagonist of Jesus´s ministries) to those of Diocletian (the late-3rd century Roman emperor who ordered the most severe persecution of the Christian faithful). Accompanying this analysis is a very cogent application of the theories of Boyd (Penetrate - Isolate - Subvert - Reorient - Reharmonize, or PISRR), with modern examples like Vichy France that match the dynamics in the early Christian church.

Both Caiaphas and Diocletian sought to preserve the status quo. For Caiaphas, appeasing Rome was his primary objective: a rogue rabbi who preached of other-worldly gifts would have reflected poorly upon him and his hierarchy. Diocletian clearly understood the management complexities of so vast an empire, and seemed to adeptly address many of the most-pressing ills that plagued the Empire (poor civic participation, an army spread thin on the borders with little to no interior defenses) despite his rampant cronyism (particularly in the establishment of the Tetrarchy). But for the first 18 years of his reign Diocletian was unconcerned about the "Christian threat" - and if it not for Galerius would likely have never ordered the Great Persecution.

Most significantly, Dan´s book opens several new fronts on the debate over the nature of insurgency - and counterinsurgency. For instance, is the ex post facto presumption of "co-option" by the splinter Jewish sect that has become the Christian church practical? Or, rather, was the Christian faith "culturally appropriated" by the Roman empire upon Emperor Constantine´s conversion to Christianity in the early 4th century? While Dan asserts the former through the hypernetworking of the Apostle Paul, I believe this is a topic worthy of broader study. For instance, was Paul (née Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee) savvy enough to realize that his peers in Jewish leadership were attracting the ire of Rome? Did Paul´s ministries throughout the Mediterranean seek to increase the rift between Jerusalem and the splinter sect of Christian faithful? And were the Gospels written in a manner to give Rome (and particularly Pilate) a "pass" in the crucifixion of Jesus? (Note that three of the four Gospels were published immediately prior to the First Jewish-Roman War and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.)

Dan also provides another benchmark in the evolving theory of the "generations of war", to wit his development of a taxonomy to differentiate between the various generational constructs. Though I disagree with his assertions that the "0th" (zeroth) generation connotes a form of "total war" and that 3rd generation warfare connotes "better minds", Dan brings value by identifying possible relationships across the xGW generations and inviting further dialogue.

This is perhaps the greatest utility of Revolutionary Strategies: proffering novel ideas in order to provoke debate. Just as the spiritual values of the Romans were initially at odds with the splinter Jewish sect we now call Christians, the different cognitive approaches of Islam and Christianity - one society favoring creativity and innovation, the other cherishing rote memorization - will have similar consequences for our own unfolding century.
¤

6) Paperback Book Revolutionary Strategies in Early Christianity: 4th Generation Warfare (4GW) Against the Roman Empire, and the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Campaign to Save It by Nimble Books. A brilliant tour de force in which strategy blogger Daniel H. Abbott (www.tdaxp.com) uses concepts from modern military strategy to illuminate the history of early Christianity, Rome, and Islam, as recounted by the historical protagonists in their own words. Must reading for anyone who is interested in the present-day struggle between Islam and the West, guerilla warfare, counterinsurgency, 4th- or 5th- generation warfare, John Boyd, Thomas P. M. Barnett, or the history of the early Church.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 9-Jan-2009, 193484036X9781934840368, 520-240-870-141-6X1-671-8

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