Gen Gregory Martin
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
The hidden history of Bletchley Park and the extraordinary accomplishments of very compartmented team members in their code breaking endeavors. Imagine what could be done today if we could marry-up the intimate knowledge of our adversaries plans with intrusive, deceitful, and deadly misinformation.
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
A story about the cooperative leadership of Southern Frenchmen in acceding to the German dictates while other country persons establish guerrilla network to move other endangered French citizens to safety during WWII.
Gen Sam Barrett
Planning for Protraction: A Historically Informed Approach to Great-power War and Sino-US Competition by Iskander Rehman
As the saying goes, amateurs talk tactics while professionals talk logistics, and nothing is more logistically complex than fighting a protracted war—the most likely outcome if shooting starts between the US and China. Such a conflict will not be short and sharp. This book should be on every US planner’s nightstand, covering everything from the likelihood of lesser adversaries to take advantage of a conflict between the two great powers to the strain that wartime production will put on the American industrial sector.
Maj Jake Alleman
On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis
Recent history shows that US planners and policymakers often lack strategic vision, leading to scenarios where leaders congratulate themselves on near-perfect tactical victories while losing the war. This primer clarifies the role of grand strategy as the connective tissue for planning across time, space, and scale, helping us to remember the need to balance a sense of direction with sensitivity for our surroundings.
Ender’s Shadow series by Orson Scott Card
A parallel series to Ender’s Game, the Shadow series follows one of Ender’s commanders as he navigates the conflicts on Earth after the rules based international order falls apart. The geopolitical dynamics are alarmingly prescient to our current age—revisionist actions by Russia and China, Indian nationalism, American isolationism—and will leave readers thinking not just "what if," but "when."
Maj Jacob Draszkiewicz
On China by Henry Kissinger
Having served as National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger draws on decades of firsthand experience in foreign policy and US-China relations. In this book, Kissinger explains how China’s history and culture have influenced its strategic outlook both past and present. On China will provide readers with a better understanding of how China’s culture and history continue to shape its decision making on the global stage.
Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar by Barry Eichengreen
In this 2011 book, Barry Eichengreen explains how the US dollar became the world’s dominant currency and remains the preferred global reserve currency. Eichengreen describes how the dollar’s unique advantages matter for geopolitics, global markets, and economic stability. The Exorbitant Privilege gives readers a deeper understanding of the United States’ economic leverage and how the dollar’s privilege can help shape and impact foreign policy.
Lt Col Joseph Bledsoe III
Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum
Autocracy, Inc. cuts through the noise and explains how modern authoritarian networks actually operate across borders. Applebaum’s analysis gives readers a clear framework for understanding the geopolitical shifts that defined the mid-2020s, from digital repression to great power competition. This is a timely guide for anyone trying to make sense of how democracies can defend themselves in an increasingly illiberal world.
Matt Gallagher
Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali
A 1964 novel about postcolonial, post-revolution Egypt that manages to be both political and anything but at once. The young narrator Ram Bey is honest, brave, confused—and very, very funny.
Zone Rouge by Michael Jerome Plunkett
The long, dark tail of war fills the alluring world of Zone Rouge, blighting the earth and shaping lives more than a century after the murderous Battle of Verdun.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
An excellent historical novel about Victorian England and the nature of storytelling itself by one of our greatest living writers.
Things That Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really by Yannick Murphy.
David ‘Dead Man’ Sterling's voice is that of most any decent junior service member's, disgruntled yet capable, representing America across the reaches of the globe in all our might and absurdity. This very fine novel that transcends the military-civilian divide because of its sharp humor and humanity.
Dr. Chad Mello
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What it Can't, and How to Tell the Difference by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor
A balanced, no-nonsense look at AI that cuts through the hype. It’s a very accessible read, giving you a solid framework for judging real capabilities versus marketing claims, and making it clear where AI’s limits actually are. The authors walk through real-world domains such as education, hiring, medicine, finance, criminal justice, showing how misplaced trust in AI is already affecting people’s lives, and why the real risk isn’t rogue machines but what powerful, largely unaccountable tech companies and institutions are doing with these tools.
Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future by Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato
Taught at Wharton and Stanford, this book is an accessible and upbeat read for anyone. Where many recent books lean heavily on caution and risk, this one will leave you with a hopeful, concrete picture of how human ingenuity and AI can be steered toward better outcomes rather than dystopian ones.
Aspen Blair
Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield
This book focuses on some of the most unexplored ecosystems on our planet, detailing the creatures who reside in them and how we can best protect them as the climate continues to change. The unknown is intrinsically fascinating to humans, and this book explores just that. The book includes several photographs as well, which really ties everything together.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
As AI continues to advance, blurring the lines between reality and fraud, this book is even more prevalent than before. It explores what makes someone uniquely human and the implications of AI intertwining in our everyday lives. This book was written in 1968, and it is astounding to think these fears still exist 55 years later.