War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century [Hardcover]

Alvin Toffler (Author), Heidi Toffler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0788151770 | ISBN-13: 978-0788151774 | Edition: First Edition

The premise of this book is that the way we make wealth is the way we make war -- that today's revolutionary changes in business are being mirrored in the world s armies & the future of war itself. Describes how the U.S. military went from defeat & demoralization in Vietnam to high performance in the Gulf -- a story with lessons for many businesses today as they, too, restructure in preparation for the 21st century. When America is groping for new strategies, when its defense industries are in crisis, & when peacemakers are being outsmarted, this book tells us why we seem bent on violence -- & what to do about it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The husband-and-wife team who collaborated on Future Shock present a chilling look at possible future wars. As set out in their earlier collaboration, The Third Wave (1980), the Tofflers' scenario portrays a world once bisected into First Wave (agrarian) and Second Wave (industrial) powers changing drastically as the U.S., Europe and Japan move toward a Third Wave economy that creates and exploits electronic information and advanced technology. The result on the battlefield, they claim, is the potential for more wars dominated by "knowledge strategy" and featuring high-tech weaponry such as battlefield robots, pilotless combat aircraft, omniscient surveillance satellites, non-lethal weapons like sleep-inducing agents, and by low-cost "niche warfare" using special forces. The Tofflers sketch a preventive strategy for peace that includes the sharing of information technology to halt weapons proliferation and the creation of a "rapid reaction contingency broadcasting force" capable of beaming news anywhere in the world.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Joined by wife Heidi, Alvin Toffler ( Future Shock , LJ 7/70; The Third Wave , LJ 4/1/80; Powershift , LJ 11/1/90) here turns to the subject of war. Seeing the phenomena of war as related to the level of technology and production in society, they focus on the "Third Wave" form of war, as exemplified by the Gulf War. Taking way too much credit for their own influence on the thinking of military strategists, the Tofflers discuss how the new production technology has transformed war from the "Second Wave" warfare (i.e., the Vietnam-era military) to a new era of "smart bombs" and "intelligent" weapons systems. In addition, they argue that new forms of war require new forms of thinking about peace. Despite its occasional glibness, the Tofflers' work is recommended as a stimulus to thinking about the future of global military and political conflict. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.
- Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.; First Edition edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788151770
• ISBN-13: 978-0788151774
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,511,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, March 13, 2010

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century (Hardcover)

Published in 1993, the authors published this look into the future of warfare. Building on the paradigm introduced in their earlier books (Future Shock, The Third Wave, and Powershift), the authors argue that as the new "Third Wave" transforms society, so will it transform warfare. Throughout, the authors attempt to show how war has been transformed, and how it will continue to transform in the decades ahead.

I first picked up this book in reaction to the then recent attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. I was hoping that it would give me a better insight into modern military, and what modern warfare would be like. I think that the authors did a great job of showing just how different any present and future wars are likely to be.

My one complaint is that the authors focused almost exclusively on the militaries of the advanced societies. If you want to see how the "new" terrorists are also "Third Wave" organizations, I highly recommend Countering the New Terrorism, by Ian O. Lesser, et al.

That said, this is a fascinating book, with a thought-provoking message. I highly recommend you read it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what they didn't see coming in 1994, November 9, 2003

By 

DRYWASHER-BILL (LAS VEGAS, NEVADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century (Hardcover)

everything in this book is here now, as well as some newer insidious developments. people no longer live private lives, what with a cell phone being able to track you around and all your conversations being heard and recorded, even if the phone is switched off. smart bombs, HAARP and atmospheric manipulation, every home infiltrated with myriad electromagnetic fields that disrupt human biological functions. Soon everyone in the world will have some sort of ID card or implant, that will tell any scanner who you are, and include your banking and credit data, personal data, nationality, and convictions-- all accessed by some sort of infrared device. the infrared devices now in use can tell how much paper money you have in your wallet, purse, or in the house of business, eventhough the scanner is inside of some car passing by your house on the street. No one is hidden anymore, video cameras scan just about any place, street, address, roadway, business, interior, exterior and can tell who goes where and what they do. Computer programs unknowingly downloaded onto your hard drive can realy just about anything about you and your habits that you would have just as sonn kept hidden.
This books gets you into the mindset, if you are so naive to think none of this is real, but only sci fi...NOT!

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Core Reading on Future of Warfighting AND Peacekeeping, April 8, 2000

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century (Hardcover)

900 copies of this book were handed out at OSS '94 when the Tofflers were our keynote speakers, and it's hard for me to do anything other than praise a book with a chapter on "The Future of the Spy" built around the concept of making better use of open sources of information. With that disclosure, I will offer the observation that this book, which has gotten enormous attention within the U.S. military, is an excellent companion to Brigadier Simpkin's book, and the two, perhaps with General Scale's book, could be used to drive any graduate-level course on structuring a future warfighting and peacekeeping force. Toffler brings us full circle, back to SunTzu: the acme of skill is to defeat the enemy without fighting. I predict that it will be last least ten years before the Department of Defense discovers that "stabilization and reconstruction" are the other side of the defense coin, and that early warning and peaceful preventive measures--as General Al Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps emphasized in 1988, are the key to victory.