World War IV - Definition and Overview

The term World War IV was coined by Professor Eliot Cohen from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and used most frequently by R. James Woolsey (Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 1993-1995) in reference to the current US-led War on Terrorism (World War III being the Cold War). However, it is not a widely used term by politicians or the press.

Arguments over World War IV

Woolsey argues that World War IV is a war against terrorism, but also a war for democracy and freedom against three distinct Middle Eastern groups:

1. Shi'a Islamic fundamentalists (the "Mullahcracy" of Iran as well as Hizbollah);
   
2. Pan-Arab social nationalists (such as the former Ba'athists of Saddam Hussein's Iraq)
   
3. Wahhabi terrorists (including Al-Qaeda and other spin-offs from the Muslim Brotherhood).

Other uses of phrase

The Zapatistas also use the phrase; for them the Third World War was usually known as the Cold War, fought between the superpowers in which mainly poorer, neutral nations were casualties. The Fourth World War refers to economic neo-liberalism, that wishes to transfer power from states to the hands of multi-national corporations. This usage of The Fourth World War was borrowed by filmmakers in 2004, for a documentary exploring a decade's worth of popular social movements that resisted neo-liberalism and imperialism.

Albert Einstein said: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

External links

• Address by James Woolsey on this topic (http://www.defenddemocracy.org/usr_doc/World_War_IV.pdf)
• Article from CNN.com regarding Woolsey (http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/)
• World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, and Why We Have to Win (Norman Podhoretz) (http://www.commentarymagazine.com/podhoretz.htm)
• EZLN on Fourth World War (http://eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/MarcosFourthWorldWar.html)
• The Fourth World War, by Subcomandante Marcos (http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/auto/fourth.html)
• The Fourth World War (movie) (http://www.bignoisefilms.com/4ww/)