Battlefield Cyber

How China and Russia are Undermining Our Democracy and National Security

By William J Holstein and Michael McLaughlin

The United States is being bombarded with cyber-attacks. From the surge in ransomware groups targeting critical infrastructure to nation states compromising the software supply chain and corporate email servers, malicious cyber activities have reached an all-time high. Russia attracts the most attention, but China is vastly more sophisticated. They have a common interest in exploiting the openness of the Internet and social media—and our democracy—to erode confidence in our institutions and to exacerbate our societal rifts to prevent us from mounting an effective response. Halting this digital aggression will require US society to undertake sweeping changes in how we educate, organize and protect ourselves and to ask difficult questions about how vulnerable our largest technology giants are. Using language that the layman can understand, this book educates readers about what has happened and inspires them to seek solutions.

Michael McLaughlin is the former Senior Counterintelligence Advisor for United States Cyber Command, where he was responsible for the coordination of all Department of Defense counterintelligence operations in cyberspace. He was at the heart of the Pentagon’s efforts, for example, to prevent Russia from using cyberattacks to disrupt Ukraine’s economy.

Bill Holstein was based in Hong Kong and Beijing for United Press International and has been following U.S.China relations for more than 40 years. He also has specialized in covering technology since joining U.S. News & World Report in 1996. He has worked for or written for Business Week, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Fortune and other top publications.

Asking difficult questions about how vulnerable the largest US tech giants are.

Rights exclusion: Audio

Prometheus

October 2023

260 pages

Hardback 978 1 6338 8901 9 eBook 978 1 6338 8902 6

Political Science • Intelligence & Espionage

Money for Mayhem Mercenaries, Private Military Companies, Drones, and the Future of War

By Alessandro Arduino

War is no longer waged only by national militaries. We are seeing a shift to a new anarchy where might makes right, but with new tools: private intelligence outfits, rent-an-army soldiers, and cyber mercenaries for hire. These groups profit from chaos and uncertainty, while accountability, transparency, and peace seem harder than ever to achieve.

Alessandro Arduino unpacks the trade-offs involved when conflict is increasingly waged not by national armies, but by professional outfits that thrive on chaos. This book charts the rise of private military actors from Russia, China, and the Middle East using primary source data, inperson interviews, and field research amongst operations in conflict zones around the world. Individual stories narrated by mercenaries, military trainers, security businessmen, hackers, and drone pilots will be used to introduce the beginning of each chapter. The book ends by considering today’s trajectories in the deployment of mercenaries by state, corporations, or even terrorist organizations and what it will mean for the future of conflict.

Dr. Alessandro Arduino is a principal research fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, co-director of the Security & Crisis Management International Centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science, and an affiliate at the Lau China Institute, King’s College London. He has two decades of experience in China encompassing risk analysis and crisis management, focusing on Belt & Road Initiative security, cyber security, private military and security companies, combat UAVs, and China’s political economy in Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia. He is a consultant to several organizations on security, risk assessment, and mitigation.

Unpacks the trade-offs involved when conflict is waged by professional outfits that thrive on chaos.

Rights exclusion: Chinese

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

October 2023

282 pages

2 illustrations

Hardback

978 1 5381 7031 1 eBook

978 1 5381 7032 8

Political Science • Security (National & International)