18)  The Shadow War – Jim Schiotto

The author makes the case with factual information and interviews with military and intelligence leaders that the US is currently in a real war with Russia and China, and at this point in time they are winning. He says this undeclared asymmetric war is the greatest danger to our national security that we face.

Since they know they cannot win a shooting war Russia and China are taking aggressive actions that are just below the level that they conclude will provoke the US to act decisively. Their goal is to weaken the US by neutralizing its military advantage and its western alliances so they can exercise much more dominance in the world community. And the more both countries get away with it the more they continue to push the envelope.

The Russian annexation of Crimea, political destabilization of Ukraine, cyber attacks on Estonia, and our own 2016 election interference are examples of this aggression. Likewise he sites the Chinese building and militarizing “islands” in the international waters of the South China Sea and their cyber theft of US military and commercial intellectual property, including detailed plans for our military C 17 cargo plane and F 35 fighter as example of this asymmetric war.

Whether you read this whole book or not you should read chapter 6. It is absolutely sobering. The author details in that chapter the extent to which both Russia and China are establishing offensive weapons in space while the US is not. He discusses how Russian or Chinese space weapons could render our military virtually paralyzed in the early stages of any conflict.