Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the NExt World War

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War

P.W. Singer and August Cole

What it’s about

is a gripping techno-thriller and work of "useful fiction" that imagines a near-future global conflict between the United States and a coalition led by a post-communist China (with Russian support). The authors—Singer (a renowned futurist and defense expert) and Cole (a defense journalist and analyst)—blend exhaustive research into emerging technologies with a fast-paced narrative to depict how the next world war might unfold. Every weapon, tactic, and vulnerability described is either real today or plausibly imminent, backed by footnotes and a reference list.

Why I like it

I read this book while simultaneously reading Destined for War, by Graham Allison. Reading the two in combination provided an enthralling sense of how a war between these two remarkable nations might play out and what it would be like to experience it. I remain extremely ignorant of the politics and cultures of human populations, and find it beyond imagination that humans choose to go to war at the scale they have recently been able to achieve (World War I and World War II), and this fictional account of World War III by two highly knowledgeable experts was an entertaining read. The big risk is that I might start feeling that I have some understanding of the drivers of such a war and how it might play out. Of course, I do not know.