A bit of recent light reading but all three books contain a phew that was close moment.
1983 by Taylor Downing covers the period leading up to the nearly fatal 1983 Able Archer exercise. Having lived through the period it was interesting to be reminded of the key events. 1983 was a close one, driven by mutual suspicion, lack of understanding and bad intelligence. Hold that thought.
Putin's Wars by the well kown Mark Galeotti takes us from Chechnya through Georgia to the current war in Ukraine. Very helpful to see the long running ideological thread through Russian foreign policy in their "near abroad". Good also on the Russian military modernisation programme. Everyone thought it was great until it went into action last year.
The book goes up to June 2022. Western intelligence was great, Russian intelligence was poor. The Russian military has been hollowed out by corruption. The Ukrainians have done great things. A pity that the west expected Ukraine to collapse in three days, even with their intelligence assets. A major failure on the part of the Russia and Ukraine "experts".
It is possible that our "phew that was close moment" has not yet been decided. Let's see what happens with that nuclear power station!
The last one is White Sun War by Mick Ryan. A future war story of a failed Chinese attempt to take Taiwan. An interesting, almost science fiction, forward look. Featuring autonomous unmanned ground vehicles which play a big role. Also interesting to see possible future Space Force capabilities. In the book the west wins by a nose after a significant "phew that was close moment".
All good and recommended. Sometimes I reflect on Francis Fukuyama's book about the end of history. I think we need to have a really good look round and understand that history continues and, as usual, in a very dangerous way.
ReplyDeleteMen in black are meant to be there so we can all sleep easy!
I have gone backwards to ‘85.
In ‘82, I was reading near futuristic ‘The Third World War’ forwarded by Sir. general John Hackett. It reads how worryingly easy it is for escalation to lead to all out war. The narrative is a developing account of war breaking out in Europe and beyond. 2 years later, they released ‘The Untold Story’ that essentially filled in the gaps …. After the war! With a post war perspective.
Having owned and read them 40 years ago, I was pleased to recently re-acquire them. The postage cost more than the books!
I’m sure there will be parallels to 2023! And likely make me feel as ill at ease now as it did then!
Hi Norm,
ReplyDeleteYes, let's hope the MIB are on the job!
I read the Hackett books back in the day and really enjoyed them. I also liked Tom Clancy's Red Storm. I found them less frightening than "Threads" back in 1984.
Well fingers crossed for the next year or so!
Cheers
Jay