cover image Six Nightmares: Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How America Can Meet Them

Six Nightmares: Real Threats in a Dangerous World and How America Can Meet Them

Anthony Lake. Little Brown and Company, $27.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-316-55976-8

""Our military and diplomatic strategy has not kept pace with our hardware,"" warns former Clinton national security adviser Lake in a book that is part memoir, part cautionary tale about the dangers the U.S. faces in the 21st century. Lake attributes our government's current lack of preparedness for possible military crises to the country's false sense of security based on its present economic strength and unprecedented wealth. In response, Lake offers a clarion call for international involvement and global cooperation. He convincingly outlines six possible disaster scenarios--including a poison gas attack and a cyber-terrorist threat--and what America might do to prevent them. In between, he offers refreshing insight into the American national security network and the personalities who make the tough decisions. Lake also retraces, somewhat defensively, the foreign policy challenges--Ireland, Bosnia, Somalia--that the Clinton administration faced in its first term. Lake's answers to the problems of the ""New World Order""--more money for the military, increased global cooperation with nations that share U.S. goals, use of the West's information superiority for military purposes, among them--are unlikely to calm anxious readers. But he has provided, in a surprisingly readable form, a Western expert's analysis of the global dangers that lie ahead. (Nov.)