Though 2034 paints a pessimistic picture for the United States, the authors keep faith in the American spirit to persevere.

The authors juxtapose China's cool and calculating actions against the ineptitude of a United States in decline. Ackerman and Stavridis emphasize the threat posed by Chinese cyberwarfare and the need for leadership to prepare for a coordinated attack. There are many allusions to the United States as a declining empire, with characters pointing out parallels between it and an overextended British Empire in the middle of the 20th century.

The central message of 2034 is that the United States will lose its way in a changing world if its leaders do not act with vision to avoid disaster and maintain global relevance. The American Century comes crashing down. The United States is humbled, no longer the number one power on the world stage. The brief conflict comes at a great cost. Russia takes advantage of the chaos and invades Poland, which is an obligatory event for a political thriller. This leads to a series of escalations, and soon several US cities are reduced to radioactive craters as American nuclear counterattacks devastate Chinese cities. A Chinese cyberattack neutralizes the US naval squadron in the South China Sea, and Iran takes a hotshot F-35 pilot hostage. The plot sees America besieged by rivals. Its attempts to pull them out of that pessimism are less successful. Even with a bit of glossing over the particularities of a global conflict and the state of the world in 13 years, 2034 plunges readers into a nightmare scenario for the United States. Chronically stressed-out characters and numerous dramatic tropes dot the landscape of this tightly written account of a hypothetical World War III. The American 21st Century is not a foregone conclusion - in fact, the authors frame that dream as an uphill climb against hostile forces. 2034 posits that American hubris will spell disaster for the United States. Written by author Elliot Ackerman and retired US admiral James Stavridis, the novel offers intrigue and action, but it bears a warning for today’s political leaders. ISBN: 9780593298688.Ģ034 mixes enough plausibility with suspense to deliver a chilling play-by-play of the fall of the United States’ global hegemony at the hands of an ascendant and technically savvy China.

2034: A Novel of the Next World War, by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis.

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