Warfare, especially Hugo Chavez’s methods in South America, has changed to a more mental, messy strategy that the world has to be prepared for, a retired army colonel said Wednesday.

Max Manwaring is a research professor with the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. He gave his lecture titled, “Guns, Gangs, God, and Ganja: The New Global Insurgency Phenomenon,” to a group of students Wednesday the Scholars Room in the Oklahoma Memorial Union. This lecture was part of John Fishel’s Presidential Dream Course on Small Wars – Low Intensity Conflict.

Fishel is a professor emeritus at the National Defense University and a lecturer at OU’s School of International and Area Studies, according to the school’s Web site.

Manwaring focused on the idea of the modern warfare concept by using Venezuela as a “concrete example.” He said Chavez, Venezuela’s president, plans to take over Latin America by first taking over the minds of countries’ citizens.

“What I would like to stress here is that this is not strictly a military effort, but also very much a psychological and political effort as well,” Manwaring said.

Rather than just focusing on conquering geographical areas, Chavez and other terrorist leaders are firstly focusing on gaining “human territory” in other countries, he said.

“These are his terms, not mine,” Manwaring said with a laugh after outlining what Chavez’s plans are to gain control of Latin America.

Chavez’s overall method is carried out in six phases that gradually build up to a final takeover of another country, Manwaring said. Although Venezuela is still in the early phases, people need to be concerned about the implications should Venezuela actually carry out these phases.

“[The U.S.] does not know how to go from military to political-psychological,” Manwaring said. “We don’t understand the power of dreams, the power of words, the power of ideas.”

To be more effective in stopping Venezuelan efforts, Manwaring said he thinks that leaders need to be taught about the new conflict until they fully understand. Also, the U.S. needs to unite citizens in the way they think about Venezuela.

In order to inform Americans about these problems, Manwaring said every congressman, as well as military leaders and other opinion shapers such as journalists first need to be taught about international relations and new strategy.

“If you can sell cigarettes to people who are supposedly educated and know that they are killing themselves by taking up this habit ... why can’t we sell political views? We can, we just haven’t really tried,” Manwaring said.

Many students from Fishel’s class attended the lecture to hear Manwaring speak further on the topic of modern warfare.

Political science junior Lanre Oyekanmi agreed the best way to stop Chavez and Venezuelan forces is to change U.S. public opinion about events that are happening.

“That’s the only way to win the war,” Oyekanmi said. “You might win with military, but people fight back if their views are not expressed.”

Another student found Manwaring’s lecture informative, but was left with questions about what the U.S. could currently do to stop the situation in South America.

“I want to know what steps the U.S. is taking to counter Chavez and his ideology,” said Dan Bishline, economics and international studies senior.