// Prerequisites
What to read before Technopolitique
If Technopolitique feels too steep at intermediate level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 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.
Beginner5/5Ben Buchanan02 · 2023
A Hacker's Mind
Bruce Schneier extends the security-engineering frame of "hacking" to law, finance, politics, and tax: every rule-based system has exploitable seams, and the wealthy and powerful exploit them constantly.
Beginner4/5Bruce Schneier03 · 2018
The Perfect Weapon
The NYT national security correspondent's account of how cyber weapons became the tool states reach for short of war, from Stuxnet to Russian election interference. Strong on the politics and decision-making, light on the technology.
Beginner4/5David E. Sanger04 · 2015
La cybersécurité
A pocket-sized primer on cybersecurity as a societal and geopolitical issue — threats, actors, stakes and policy — in the classic French “Que sais-je ?” format.
Beginner3/5Nicolas Arpagian05 · 2018
Cyber
A strategic analysis of cyber conflict as permanent, sub-threshold warfare — and what France and Europe should do about it — by a former senior French strategist and a consultant.
Intermediate4/5Jean-Louis Gergorin, Léo Isaac-Dognin06 · 2012
Cyberstratégie
An early French military-strategic treatment of cyberspace as a theatre of operations — doctrine, deterrence and the determinants of a national cyber policy — by a French officer and strategist.
Intermediate3/5Bertrand Boyer07 · 2014
Cybertactique
The tactical companion to Cyberstratégie — how cyber operations are actually conducted, from planning to execution — by a French officer and strategist.
Intermediate3/5Bertrand Boyer08 · 2015
Introduction à la cyberstratégie
A foundational French introduction to cyberstrategy — treating cyberspace as a domain of strategic thought — by a former officer and strategy scholar.
Intermediate3/5Olivier Kempf