The Imagined Intelligence Seducing the Military

The Chinese Communist Party is no more.

It has been replaced by an equally ambitious council of military officers and business tycoons collectively known as the “Directorate.” More amenable to market logic than their predecessors yet no less hostile to the United States, they orchestrate a preemptive, multipronged attack that disables American satellite communications systems, neutralizes the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine fleets, infiltrates defense and weapons systems with a series of infected microchips, and culminates in an attack on Pearl Harbor and the occupation of Hawaii. The result is a crippled U.S. military and World War III, unleashed from the darkest nightmares of American defense analysts.

This sobering future scenario is not just a work of fiction. It is fiction that is making ripples within the American defense community.

Published in 2015, “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War” is a techno-thriller co-authored by defense strategist Peter W. Singer and former Wall Street Journal reporter August Cole. In numerous public statements and appearances, the authors have claimed that the novel has prompted three different government investigations into U.S. military vulnerabilities, changes in military training programs, testimony before Congress about the future of war and a $3.6 billion unmanned ship program named after the 416-page book. (