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.
