Fire In the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age
By Paul Bracken
2/5
()
About this ebook
On May 11, 1998, India began testing nuclear weapons.
The world will never be the same.
The Indian test of five atomic bombs, and the Pakistani tests that answered a few weeks later, marked the end of the arms control system that has kept the world from nuclear war for half a century. As Paul Bracken, professor of management and political science at Yale University, explains in this landmark study, they signal the reemergence of something the world hasn't seen since the sixteenth century-modern technologically adept military powers on the mainland of Asia.
In Fire in the East, Professor Bracken reveals several alarming trends and secrets, such as how close Isreal actually came to a germ warfare attack during the Gulf War, why "globalization" will spur the development of weapons of mass destruction, how American interests are endangered by Asian nationalism, and how to navigate what he names the second nuclear age. Fire in the East is a provocative account of how the Western monopoly on modern arms is coming to an end, and how it will forever transform America's role on the stage of international politics.
Paul Bracken
Paul Bracken is a professor of management and political science at Yale University and a well-established expert in the field of international politics. He has served as a consultant to nearly all of the post-cold war government reassessments of national security, including those for the Department of Defense and the CIA. He is the author of Command and Control of Nuclear Forces.
Related to Fire In the East
Related ebooks
A Grand Strategy for America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Global Order Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsU.S. Naval Power in the 21st Century: A New Strategy for Facing the Chinese and Russian Threat Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Containment and Credibility: The Ideology and Deception That Plunged America into the Vietnam War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Domino Theory: Does China really want to attack Australia?: Australian Foreign Affairs 19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNATO's Proxy War Against Russia: Ukraine As Proxy And Victim Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan's Defense and American Strategy in Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAFA14 The Taiwan Choice: Showdown in Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nuclear Madness in South Asia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRussian Grand Strategy in the era of global power competition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings(Why) Do Neighbours Cooperate?: Institutionalised Coalitions and Bargaining Power in EU Council Negotiations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerilous Partners: The Benefits and Pitfalls of America's Alliances with Authoritarian Regimes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar and the Rise of the State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaders at War: How Presidents Shape Military Interventions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Logics of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States, and Military Occupations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5NATO No Longer Fits The Bill: We Need a More European Alliance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Great Game: China and South and Central Asia in the Era of Reform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire’s Labor: The Global Army That Supports U.S. Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPost-Imperium: A Eurasian Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuperpower China – Understanding the Chinese world power from Asia: History, Politics, Education, Economy and Military Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArtificial intelligence and the future of warfare: The USA, China, and strategic stability Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIslamic Extremism and the War of Ideas: Lessons from Indonesia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDanger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ties That Blind: How the U.S.-Saudi Alliance Damages Liberty and Security Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStopping the Bomb: The Sources and Effectiveness of US Nonproliferation Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHard Choices: What Britain Does Next Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Fire In the East
2 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Fire In the East - Paul Bracken
1 NO ROOM ON THE CHESSBOARD
The world is moving at warp speed. A button pushed at a trading desk in New York affects prices around the world in seconds and ripples through the world’s economy in a matter of days or weeks. Transfixed by twenty-four-hour news broadcasts and by real-time financial data around the clock and the mountains of information flickering continuously across the Internet, Western leaders in the 1990s have devoted themselves to detecting and responding to short-term phenomena.
But the world is also moving at slow speed. Slow-motion change is barely perceived. When India and Pakistan tested their atomic bombs in 1998, Western leaders were transfixed by a stock market collapse in Indonesia. The twin bomb programs had been under way for fifteen years, but Western leaders, and certainly the media, were absorbed in the breaking story—a financial panic! hurried conferences of central bankers aimed at restoring confidence! statements! leaks! denials!—right up until the video of the blasts showed up on CNN. Only then did the nuclear arming of South Asia, overlooked for years, commandeer the world’s attention.
In Slowness, the novelist Milan Kundera draws a connectionbetween change and forgetfulness. We are caught up in the spiral of events, lost in its energy, blind to the accumulation of slow changes remaking our world. Without our noticing, the political and military map of Asia—one-third of the earth’s landmass, with almost two-thirds of the world’s population—is being redrawn. The Asia of the cold war, a disjointed collection of subregions and military theaters, no longer exists, not even notionally. Instead, the West must adopt a new paradigm, a geography of strategic interactions, in which the old barriers of distance and terrain have lost their meaning. These are some of the factors shaping it:
Europe, called the cockpit of the world because it has been the locus of so many major wars, is now more secure than it has been in ages. As a result, European armed forces have been cut back to the point where Europe is no longer a serious military power. The British navy takes to the seas with centuries of proud tradition behind it, but with fewer submarines than India has. The French armed forces are so technically backward that they are virtually irrelevant except for low-intensity peacekeeping missions. European armed forces are hopelessly unprepared when it comes to the kind of modern fighting the United States engaged in during the Gulf War. Between nuclear retaliation and peacekeeping, they have few