Recommended as an introduction

A short and informative book with very good recommendations for further reading. As a introduction to modern conflict and war, this is a relevant book.

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Mark has found his literary voice!

At times whimsical even lyrical Mark has found his voice as an author ...I loved it listened to it in one day! He rambles through a vast array of conflicts and subterfuge but always pulling the threads together into a fascinating tapestry. It was high time that Mark stepped out of his Russian box and let his curious and knowing mind soar ...

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Excellent book

Really good book from an ever better author. Topics are very well handled and I also liked the pointing to further sources.

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I should have done my research ...

The book is at its best when it just sticks to giving accounts of the various 'weaponisations.' It tends to do it according to Western orientated neoliberalism though. Russia, China and Trump bad, even though under Trump Russia and China were more tame ... If you want to know what the USA (and their pets, the UK and France etc), thinks about the weaponisation of everything then you will like this more than me.

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Good title not so good content

The topic is very interesting, however once you dive into the book, it only touch on the service, and keep it on a high level. Perhaps I came in with the wrong expectations..

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Doesn't deliver

This is an interesting subject, but this book is a little lightweight on subject matter, at least compared to much of the recommended literature. It may be because it tries to cover too much at once, but the book is also deliberately written in a very surface level way - which is reflected by the choice of discarding referencing. The used literature is only hinted at the end of the chapter as a recommended reading list. This is really poor, because the reader should be able to check the source of the information he is given – especially in the time when information is warfare.
However, the main flaw in the book is that it does not deliver its promise of a field guide. The book promises to help the reader survive the weaponisation of everything. However, the tips it gives are propositions of policy guidelines for the western nations, mostly for the USA. These may or may not be useful, but only for the people holding high offices in the western governments, or mostly in the government of the USA. This is probably the target audience of the book, and it would explain why it reads as a brief on the matters of weaponisation too. That's okay, but it seems to be marketed for the wider public that will not find it useful. Nor will the academic audiences, for that matter. I expected to learn some insightful tips on how to survive the unconventional, mostly economic warfare as a private citizen who has no great wealth nor great power. That would have been genuinely new, useful and interesting content, but the book doesn't deliver it.
Since its actual content is neither very in depth nor novel, it has little interest for anybody who is already familiar with the literature in this field. In fact, I ended up returning the audiobook. As a final note, the author reads his text pretty okay, and as said, no sources are cited so it doesn't seem like you're losing anything essential by listening to the audiobook as compared to reading the book. But no matter whether you read or listen to this book, you won't gain much either.

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4 people found this helpful