Future Wars: The World's Most Dangerous Flashpoints - Softcover

The time is the near future... The Intifada, the Palestinian revolt, intensifies throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Israel. The combined air forces of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Egypt invade the skies over Israel. The sixth Arab-Israeli war has begun... South Korean student protesters, marching to the demilitarized zone separating their country from North Korea, are fired on by South Korean security forces, resulting in nearly 1,000 casualties and worldwide cries of protest. Wildly escalating tensions culminate in air and artillery strikes by North Korea against the South that launch, in turn, the second Korean War... The revolutionary Sandinista Front regains power in Nicaragua in a bloodless coup. With a renewed offensive by FMLN guerrillas in neighboring El Salvador, the Sandinistas establish a supporting land supply link to the rebels by mounting an offensive into Honduras. Once again, Central America is engulfed in war... Russia's controversial prime minister is assassinated as he addresses a special session of parliament. A resurgent KGB takes power and declares martial law. Mutinies erupt in army and air force units across the country ushering in the second Russian Revolution... Today we witness a harsh paradox: after the long-hoped-for end of the Cold War, concern for world security has, if anything, dramatically increased. Now, in Future Wars, Col. Trevor N. Dupuy one of America's foremost military analysts, examines ten world hotspots where war might break out in the next five years. With the assistance of a unique analytical tool developed by the author, a computerized combat simulation used in several defense ministries around theworld, Future Wars examines the following possible global flashpoints, the third Gulf War, the fourth India-Pakistan War, the Sandinista War, the war for Transylvania, the Libya-Egypt War, the second Korean War, the second war for Africa, the sixth Arab-Israeli War, the Russian Civil War and the Sino-Russian border war. Written with the authority of a top-ranked military analyst and the you-are-there immediacy of the best techno-thriller fiction, Future Wars gives a brief history of the region for each of these wars and describes its probable course - including a review of each side's military potential, a vividly detailed scenario of a typical engagement, and a prediction of what the outcome most likely would be. An educated speculation about what could happen and how, Future Wars may well prove to be one of the most important books for the uncertain and perilous years that lie ahead.

The world remains a dangerous place; war will be as much a part of its future as its past, argues Dupuy, author of excellent military histories. The fictional scenarios he chronicles are laid out with precision: first a recent history, then a hypothetical crisis (set in the mid-1990s), a tedious look at the composition of the opposing forces, and finally a dramatic, all-too-believable account of fantasy battles--a Russian civil war, several Middle East conflicts, Korea, Central America, and Transylvania. Dupuy's battlefields are derived from a 1965 computer-based mathematical combat model. His captivating writing makes up for the model's weaknesses in quantifying factors like surprise and mobility. For military studies and international affairs collections.
- John Yur echko, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.