Asia Defense

Book Review: Ghost Fleet and the Hereafter of Bang-up Power State of war

Peter West. Vocaliser and Baronial Cole polish in Ghost Fleet.

Book Review: Ghost Fleet and the Future of Great Power War

Credit: Amazon.com

Writing about the futurity of geopolitics is a challenging task. Writers are asked to mix politics, social developments, and science in a mode that is interesting enough to attract an audition and credible enough to retain their attention. In that sense, P.West. Singer and August Cole'southward Ghost Armada is a success. The two authors, with backgrounds in Washington-based foreign policy think tanks, residuum thorough research in defence force technology with ongoing geopolitical developments to create a highly believable vision for what the adjacent world war could look like. Their clear investment into research with defense and security technical experts could well have yielded a complete text book on its own. However, readers have the luxury of enjoying their difficult work through a fictional story that pits the United States, Red china, and Russia in the next generation of warfare. [Ed. notation: This review may contain minor spoilers.]

The book'southward title, Ghost Fleet, comes from an expression used in the U.Due south. Navy that refers to partially or fully decommissioned ships kept in reserve for potential employ in time to come conflict. These ships, as one might imagine, are older and naturally less technologically sophisticated than their modern counterparts. Singer and Cole cleverly utilize this concept, retiring older ships and weaponry in favor of newer versions with higher technological integration, to illustrate a fundamental motif in the book: while America'southward newest generation of warfighting mechanism and gear is capable of inflicting greater levels of punishment, information technology is too vulnerable to strange threats in ways that its predecessors were non. The multi-billion dollar, next generation F-35 aircraft, for instance, is rendered powerless after information technology is revealed that Chinese microprocessor manufacturers had implanted malicious code into products intended for the jet.

The bulk of fighting takes place on the traditional battlegrounds of air, land, and sea. Chinese forces take reward of their unsuspecting American counterparts and launch a familiar-sounding surprise assail on the U.Southward. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack had been precipitated past a Chinese gas discovery most the Mariana Trench, giving the Chinese regime, known as the Directorate, enough leverage to act without fear for economic sanctions from the United States. The battles that ensue feature new weapons systems such as the U.S. Navy's railgun, synthetic "stims" that boost soldiers' reaction fourth dimension and alertness, and unmanned aerial combat drones that rely on computer programs to engage enemy warplanes in high speed dogfights that would have strained even the fittest man flight aces. Young officers and enlistees on all sides likewise vesture "viz" glasses that many volition likely recognize as descendants of Google's Google Drinking glass.

For all of their emphasis on cut edge engineering in traditional planes of fighting, however, Ghost Armada's authors besides bear witness readers what warfare might look similar on two completely new planes as well: cyber and outer space. Imaginative scientific discipline fiction writers accept treaded these realms for years, but few have washed and so with the concrete expertise and insight of Vocaliser and Cole. China's successful use of a space-based laser to preemptively disable American military satellites and communications equipment, for example, has no precedent in history, simply Singer and Cole might contend that the scenario is fast becoming a possibility as space technology continues to evolve. Indeed, the opening pages of the book feature the deadly betrayal of an American astronaut by his Russian counterparts on the international infinite station, reminding the reader that tomorrow'due south wars, like national allegiance, will not be tethered to lines on the world.

If at that place is one area in which Singer and Cole sometimes fall curt of their goal of crafting a book that both educates and entertains readers, information technology is in the fictional thread that holds together the secondary, interpersonal plot. The story of the third world state of war unfolds before the reader from multiple perspectives, including those of an emotionally estranged male parent and son who are serving together on one of the U.Due south. Navy's premier ships, a seductive surf teacher nicknamed the "Black Widow" for her about obsession with seducing and slaying Chinese soldiers in Hawaii, and an eccentric billionaire turned space pirate. For all of the peculiarities that make these characters interesting, they do little to maintain the serious, credible tone of a book nearly war. However, despite the shortcomings in character depth and development, the book's grounding in technical expertise and geopolitical strategy more than makes up for any lack of depth in any of the characters.

Singer and Cole's Ghost Fleet scores highly in its ability to communicate cutting edge, and futuristic technical concepts about warfare and equipment, while setting the stage for a compelling geopolitical showdown betwixt some of the world's most powerful militaries. Inevitably, many readers will dismiss some of the technology the writers describe as the stuff of scientific discipline fiction books or movies, casting doubt on the plausibility of some of the book'south more technical aspects. Yet the thoroughness and authorization the two authors bring to the Ghost Armada is what places the volume in a category of its own, and apart from mainstream scientific discipline fiction, making information technology worthy of serious reflection. Ghost Fleet's primary aim is to inform security and defense professionals, just as its character-filled narrative serves to interpret sophisticated technical concepts with practical, if fictional, illustrations. The book provides readers with an unquestioningly plausible vision for what could one day go the reality of smashing power war.

Gary Bearden is a foreign policy professional person and current Political Risk Fellow with Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP). He has professional and living experience in Eastern Europe, Northward Africa and Latin America, holds three Bachelors degrees from Ohio State University and a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.