A rigorous treatment of a formidably difficult and deeply important subject.
Szymanski and Drew present a comprehensive analysis of the conceptual and symbolic frameworks necessary for formulating tactical plans for war in space.
The authors observe that the promise of outer space as a “warfighting domain” is considerable—it offers a “nuanced menu of alternatives” to “more disruptive options” for Earthly conflicts, and it could ultimately offer avenues of aggression that minimize the loss of life. However, since space warfare is such a new concept, it is challenging to strategically and tactically prepare for the eventuality, a point persuasively made by Szymanski and Drew in this remarkably thorough study. To meet this challenge, the authors formulate various conceptual schema to clarify the various levels of war. This “common language” accommodating the dizzying potentialities of space war can be tediously and intricately complex—there are pages and pages devoted to the proper “symbology,” with extended discussions of what kinds of arrows should be used to represent various actions. While such scrupulous attention to detail is likely essential, it means this book is only appropriate for those who think about such matters as a professional obligation. This is an astonishingly meticulous text, not surprising given the depth of expertise of the authors: Szymanski has nearly a half century of experience in space control, and Drew (currently the chief of joint space training at Department of Joint, Interagency and Multinational Operations at US Army Command and General Staff College) is one of the founding members of the nation’s space force. They carve out a permanent place for statesmanship: “No matter how sophisticated their military equipment, war is still about the knowledge, culture, traditions, education, intelligence, fear, and fatigue of the participants combined with the terrain, weather, political considerations, and the operational situation.” This is an important contribution, sure to be widely read as space becomes a more prominent theater of war.
A rigorous treatment of a formidably difficult and deeply important subject.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781637550717
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.
Bearing witness to oppression.
Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593230381
Page Count: 176
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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