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  • The Kill Chain

  • Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare
  • Written by: Christian Brose
  • Narrated by: Christian Brose
  • Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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The Kill Chain cover art

The Kill Chain

Written by: Christian Brose
Narrated by: Christian Brose
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Publisher's Summary

From a former senior advisor to Senator John McCain comes an urgent wake-up call about how new technologies are threatening America's military might.

For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war.

As Christian Brose reveals in this urgent wake-up call, the future will be defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other emerging technologies that are revolutionizing global industries and are now poised to overturn the model of American defense. This fascinating, if disturbing, book confronts the existential risks on the horizon, charting a way for America's military to adapt and succeed with new thinking as well as new technology. America must build a battle network of systems that enables people to rapidly understand threats, make decisions, and take military actions, the process known as "the kill chain." Examining threats from China, Russia, and elsewhere, The Kill Chain offers hope and, ultimately, insights on how America can apply advanced technologies to prevent war, deter aggression, and maintain peace

©2020 Christian Brose (P)2020 Hachette Books

What the critics say

"The Kill Chain is a tour-de-force. Few people are as knowledgeable and experienced as Christian Brose in thinking about the intersection of emerging technology and national defense. He pulls it all together in this compelling, unsettling, and outstanding book."—Eric Schmidt, former Chairman of Alphabet and CEO and Chairman of Google

"Provocative, jolting, superb, and on target! The Kill Chain is all of those things and more. If you read only one book to better understand the challenges facing the US military and the promise of emerging technologies, this should be it."—Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and author of Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character

"Christian Brose has done the country a great service by writing this important and timely book. The Kill Chain is a powerful and thoughtful challenge to much of the conventional wisdom about national defense. It also offers a compelling vision for how the US military can get beyond business as usual to compete and win in this new era of great power competition. Brose's book should be read by every American."—Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), author of Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery

What listeners say about The Kill Chain

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Exceptional and very engaging

This is one of the best audiobooks that I've listened to over the past several years. I was not fond of the narration but by the end of the audiobook I had become fairly accustomed to it. While the US has many advantages, the fact that much of Silicon Valley will not share leading technology with the US military, and that the situation is the reverse in China, means that the US military will have its work cut out for itself in the years and decades ahead.

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An absolute must read

This book is an important read for anyone that wants to understand current warfare, on what equipement it is reliant, and what the future of warfare might look like. Christian Brose does an excellent job in linking technology, operational capabilities and grand strategy in a critical analysis of America's situation as it face the challenges of the post Cold War world.

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