What is Paul Bracken reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Paul Bracken, author of The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics.

His entry begins:

I just read Colin Wilson's Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs (1964). It offers a fantastic view of the inner workings of elites in the Russia of Nicholas and Alexandra , and just how crazy the mix of people and institutions can get. More deeply, Wilson argues that Rasputin illustrates the interaction of big historical mega trends with individuals who literally alter the direction of these trends. Had Rasputin been assassinated in 1910, rather than 1916, Russia might never have got into World War I, and almost surely would have developed into a constitutional monarchy. No Lenin, no Stalin. Maybe no Hitler. No...[read on]

About The Second Nuclear Age, from the publisher:

A leading international security strategist offers a compelling new way to "think about the unthinkable."

The cold war ended more than two decades ago, and with its end came a reduction in the threat of nuclear weapons—a luxury that we can no longer indulge. It’s not just the threat of Iran getting the bomb or North Korea doing something rash; the whole complexion of global power politics is changing because of the reemergence of nuclear weapons as a vital element of statecraft and power politics. In short, we have entered the second nuclear age.

In this provocative and agenda-setting book, Paul Bracken of Yale University argues that we need to pay renewed attention to nuclear weapons and how their presence will transform the way crises develop and escalate. He draws on his years of experience analyzing defense strategy to make the case that the United States needs to start thinking seriously about these issues once again, especially as new countries acquire nuclear capabilities. He walks us through war-game scenarios that are all too realistic, to show how nuclear weapons are changing the calculus of power politics, and he offers an incisive tour of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia to underscore how the United States must not allow itself to be unprepared for managing such crises.

Frank in its tone and farsighted in its analysis, The Second Nuclear Age is the essential guide to the new rules of international politics.

Learn more about The Second Nuclear Age at the Times Books website.

Paul Bracken is the author of Fire in the East and The Command and Control of Nuclear Forces. He is a professor of management and political science at Yale University.

Writers Read: Paul Bracken.

--Marshal Zeringue