FORT BENNING, Ga., (Feb. 24, 2016) -- August Cole, co-author of "Ghost Fleet" and senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, spoke to students at the Maneuver Center of Excellence about his book Feb. 16 as part of the Combat Leader Speaker Program.
Cole began his talk by giving a brief overview of his book to the students.
"Ghost Fleet is a fictional account of what the next global conflict might be like," said Cole. "We envisioned a war between China and the United States over the Pacific - and not in the normal military domains of air, seas and land, but also space and cyber."
Cole said he worked extensively with his co-author, Peter Singer, to research every aspect incorporated in the book: current technology that exists in each country, political ideals, national aspirations and so forth.
"The book is footnoted, which is unusual for a novel," said Cole. "But we felt it was an important way to build credibility behind the story that was going to reach a bigger audience than a conventional policy document or non-fictional approach to telling this tale."
Cole discussed the "kind of conflict" he and Springer envisioned, where new domains such as non-state actors were brought in. He emphasized that these actors would include Silicon Valley billionaires, space pirates and non-state groups like Anonymous who would "certainly" have a stake in the outcome of any conflict.
"Right now these entities aren't yet recognized as participants or combatants, and we wanted to look at how some of these individuals or groups would participate, flag them to be considered and see what their contribution might be," said Cole. "Right now when we talk about non-state actors we talk about them in a negative way, but there is a different way to look at the potential of individual people to affect great change in a positive sense."
Cole also discussed some of the main lessons he and Singer learned while writing the book, chief among them the liabilities that come from the continued emphasis on new technology.
"The reliance on technology presents tremendous opportunities - but has many liabilities that we have to be honest about and confront," explained Cole. "Particularly when investing in the military with interconnected systems. They introduce new vulnerabilities as much as new capabilities; how war would be waged not as we want, but as our adversaries would choose to wage against us."
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