@War
The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex
Shane Harris on the entanglement of US military doctrine, the intelligence community, and private contractors after cyberspace was declared the fifth warfighting domain.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The link above is sponsored.
- Authors
- Shane Harris
- Published
- 2014
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Pages
- 263
- Language
- English
Read this if
Anyone interested in the contractor and policy economy that surrounds US offensive cyber. Harris reports the institutions (NSA, CYBERCOM, the contractor ecosystem) and how their tensions shape strategy. Strong companion to Dark Territory.
Skip this if
Practitioners wanting technical detail on operations. Harris is reporting institutional politics, not implementation; the book is for readers who care about how decisions get made, not how shells get popped.
Key takeaways
- The Military-Internet Complex is real, profitable, and largely opaque to oversight; Harris names the contractors and traces the dollar flows.
- CYBERCOM's establishment was less doctrine than Pentagon turf consolidation; the book documents the bureaucratic battles candidly.
- Defense and offense are organisationally entangled inside the US government; the conflicts of interest the book describes have only sharpened since publication.
Notes
Pair with Dark Territory (Kaplan) for the longer historical arc and Sandworm (Greenberg) for the GRU-side counterpart. Harris's later work on artificial intelligence and intelligence reform is the natural follow-up. Required reading for anyone briefing executives or boards on the policy landscape that surrounds technical decisions.
What to read before
What to read before @War →Beginner · 2016
Dark Territory
Fred Kaplan's policy-side history of US cyber capability, from Reagan-era panic about WarGames to the institutional buildup of NSA's offensive arm and the political fights over its use.
Beginner · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
Beginner · 2019
Sandworm
Long-form journalism on the GRU's hacking operations, the best non-technical book on what state-level cyber actually looks like.
What to read next
What to read after @War →Beginner · 2016
Dark Territory
Fred Kaplan's policy-side history of US cyber capability, from Reagan-era panic about WarGames to the institutional buildup of NSA's offensive arm and the political fights over its use.
Beginner · 2011
Kingpin
Kevin Poulsen's reconstruction of Max Butler's career — from white-hat consultant to running CardersMarket, the carding forum that consolidated the early-2000s underground — and the FBI investigation that finally took him down.
Beginner · 2019
Sandworm
Long-form journalism on the GRU's hacking operations, the best non-technical book on what state-level cyber actually looks like.
Explore similar books
Alternatives to @War →Beginner · 2016
Dark Territory
Fred Kaplan's policy-side history of US cyber capability, from Reagan-era panic about WarGames to the institutional buildup of NSA's offensive arm and the political fights over its use.
Beginner · 2020
The Hacker and the State
Ben Buchanan's argument that state-on-state cyber operations are not deterrence-shaped (like nuclear) but signaling-shaped: countries use cyber to shape the environment, not to threaten escalation. Builds the case from declassified incidents.
Beginner · 2019
Sandworm
Long-form journalism on the GRU's hacking operations, the best non-technical book on what state-level cyber actually looks like.