Why am I passionate about this?

Living in the American Embassy in Moscow as a teenager during the Cold War, I grew up keenly aware of the perils of global instability and nuclear war. While friends back home worried about how to buy a car or score a date, I wandered the streets of Moscow, often tailed by the KGB, hoping US nuclear missiles didn’t launch our way. So, I’ve always been interested in big questions of how to avoid wars, and how to end them. Since then, I’ve traveled the world, worked in both government and academe, advised senior national and international policymakers, and become an award-winning author.  


I wrote

Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation Is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists

By Audrey Kurth Cronin,

Book cover of Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation Is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists

What is my book about?

Powerful market forces are driving lethal capacity into the hands of small groups, like private armies, militias, insurgencies, terrorists, and…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Future of War: A History

Audrey Kurth Cronin Why did I love this book?

Sir Lawrence Freedman sets the standard for erudite but accessible writing about strategy, and this is another wonderful book. It analyzes how smart people in many historical settings have predicted the future of war, and why their predictions then succeeded or failed. The broader political, economic, or social context was often more important than popular concepts of the day—things like short war, decisive battle, the “RMA,” or revolutionary technology. Freedman also reminds us that influential analyses of war’s future change how that future unfolds. Reading this book helped me see beyond popular predictions, to be more discerning about change and continuity.

By Lawrence Freedman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Future of War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For as long as there have been wars there have been fears about the next war. Where are the new dangers? What is the best defence? How might peace come about? This is the history of how over the last 150 years we have tried - rightly and wrongly - to predict war's future.

'Britain's leading academic strategist ... read this book' Economist

'Insightful and opinionated ... expertly covers centuries of evolving mayhem' Gary J. Bass, The New York Times

'A bonfire of predictions ... Freedman's purpose in this wise book is to discern patterns in the way we have…


Book cover of The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History

Audrey Kurth Cronin Why did I love this book?

A key question today about the future of war is who will dominate AI technologies–China or the US & its allies? History offers clues. This book tackles the hot debate about what historians call the great divergence—that is, why, since it invented gunpowder (and other key military technologies), China then fell dramatically behind Europe in the modern era. Andrade goes beyond classic arguments about a gradual 500-year Rise of the West, beyond revisionist arguments about the West shooting ahead only very recently, to craft a third view. Using archival evidence, he lays out a series of key smaller divergences accompanying industrialization. Why does this interest me? If Western technological advances happened only recently and rapidly, they can be quickly reversed. 

By Tonio Andrade,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Gunpowder Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Chinese invented gunpowder and began exploring its military uses as early as the 900s, four centuries before the technology passed to the West. But by the early 1800s, China had fallen so far behind the West in gunpowder warfare that it was easily defeated by Britain in the Opium War of 1839-42. What happened? In The Gunpowder Age, Tonio Andrade offers a compelling new answer, opening a fresh perspective on a key question of world history: why did the countries of western Europe surge to global importance starting in the 1500s while China slipped behind? Historians have long argued…


Book cover of Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War

Audrey Kurth Cronin Why did I love this book?

Paul Scharre explains the military use of autonomous weapons and AI-driven platforms in a book that’s accessible and comprehensive. He’s a former Army Ranger who helped write the US military’s guidelines for unmanned systems and military autonomy. I have other, more recent books about individual technologies; but Scharre’s is the only one that melds an insider’s understanding of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) with clear analysis of their pros and cons. He’s a skeptic of arms control but sees the need to reduce their downsides. My students like the book—even those deeply opposed to LAWs. Scharre’s explanations of autonomy and AI in military weapons are especially valuable for non-specialists. They are an antidote to all the loose AI terminology that just confuses everyone. 

By Paul Scharre,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Army of None as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The era of autonomous weapons has arrived. Today around the globe, at least thirty nations have weapons that can search for and destroy enemy targets all on their own. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in next-generation warfare, describes these and other high tech weapons systems-from Israel's Harpy drone to the American submarine-hunting robot ship Sea Hunter-and examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. "A smart primer to what's to come in warfare" (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and…


Book cover of Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

Audrey Kurth Cronin Why did I love this book?

This book lays out the security risks of fast-moving AI research better than any I have read. Stuart Russell believes artificial intelligence will soon out-think human beings in scale, scope, and speed. And he knows what he’s talking about: he’s been a leading AI researcher since the 1980s. Russell’s not concerned about superhuman robots becoming conscious and turning on us. His worry is intelligent AI algorithms doing exactly what we’ve designed them to do, including objectives that incentivize manipulating or harming humans. And that’s already happening–think social media search algorithms, driving humans into violent, polarized groups or future AI used to track down “the enemy,” however defined. Russell’s solution is to change AI research to incentivize outcomes that serve humankind. I think every human should read this book.

By Stuart Russell,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Human Compatible as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new approach to AI that will enable us to coexist successfully with increasingly intelligent machines

In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable.

In this groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines.…


Book cover of Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

Audrey Kurth Cronin Why did I love this book?

Brad Smith is the president of Microsoft, a lawyer who designed and drove Microsoft’s legal strategy during the anti-trust suit in the 1990s. (I should also mention he was my undergraduate classmate at Princeton University—though I’ve not seen him in decades.) Smith co-authored the book with Carol Ann Browne, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Communications. Most big tech companies see themselves as historically unique, allergic to discussing risk, regulation, responsibility, or self-restraint. I assumed this book would follow suit; but I was wrong. It’s honest, balanced, and full of historical references to earlier technologies, such as railroads, electricity, the telegraph, and nuclear weapons. It’s also loaded with insider stories about cyber threats, social media-facilitated violence, and international law initiatives (e.g., the “Digital Geneva Convention”). This book taught me a lot about how major tech companies are already affecting war and peace.

By Brad Smith, Carol Ann Browne,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Tools and Weapons as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller, now updated with new material on cyber attacks, digital sovereignty, and tech in a pandemic.

From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.

"A colorful and insightful insiders' view of how technology is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future." -Walter Isaacson

Microsoft president Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes…


Explore my book 😀

Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation Is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists

By Audrey Kurth Cronin,

Book cover of Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation Is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists

What is my book about?

Powerful market forces are driving lethal capacity into the hands of small groups, like private armies, militias, insurgencies, terrorists, and even individuals. Commercial drones, cyber weapons, autonomous weapons, and AI decision-making have disrupted key functions that used to be monopolized by states. 

This book explains exactly how that process works. Market forces drove earlier innovations, too—like dynamite and the Kalashnikov rifle, which ballooned insurgencies and terrorist campaigns. But the scale, scope, and political impact of today’s technologies are unprecedented. It used to require a professional army to mobilize, project power, and direct command-and-control. Now state armies are blindsided by their effects. Power to the People explains how common technologies endanger us, and how we can reduce their destabilizing risks without snuffing out innovation.

You might also like...

Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

Book cover of Girl of Light

Elana Gomel Author Of Nine Levels

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Elana's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A girl of Light in a world of darkness.

In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…

Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

What is this book about?

A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.

Girl of Light is a dark fantasy with a Slavic…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in war, artificial intelligence, and presidential biography?

War 2,016 books