The Future of Violence Lib/E: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones--Confronting a New Age of Threat

From drone warfare in the Middle East to digital spying by the National Security Agency, the US government has harnessed the power of cutting-edge technology to awesome effect. But what happens when ordinary people have the same tools at their fingertips? Advances in cybertechnology, biotechnology, and robotics mean that more people than ever before have access to potentially dangerous technologies--from drones to computer networks and biological agents--that could be used to attack states and private citizens alike. In The Future of Violence, law and security experts Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum detail the myriad possibilities, challenges, and enormous risks present in the modern world and argue that if our national governments can no longer adequately protect us from harm, they will lose their legitimacy. Consequently, governments, companies, and citizens must rethink their security efforts to protect lives and liberty. In this brave new world where many little brothers are as menacing as any Big Brother, safeguarding our liberty and privacy may require strong domestic and international surveillance and regulatory controls. Maintaining security in this world where anyone can attack anyone requires a global perspective, with more multinational forces and greater action to protect (and protect against) weaker states who do not yet have the capability to police their own people. Drawing on political thinkers from Thomas Hobbes to the Founders and beyond, Wittes and Blum show that, despite recent protestations to the contrary, security and liberty are mutually supportive, and we must embrace one to ensure the other. The Future of Violence is at once an introduction to our emerging world--one in which students can print guns with 3-D printers and scientists' manipulations of viruses can be recreated and unleashed by ordinary people--and an authoritative blueprint for how government must adapt in order to survive and protect us.

About the Author :
Benjamin Wittes is a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. Together with Gabriella Blum he directs the Harvard Law School-Brookings Project on Law and Security. He lives in Washington, DC. Gabriella Blum is the Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School. Together with Benjamin Wittes she directs the Harvard Law School-Brookings Project on Law and Security. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tom Weiner, a dialogue director and voice artist best known for his roles in video games and television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Transformers, is the winner of eight Earphones Awards and is an Audie Award finalist. He is a former member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Review :
"A book that manages to meld Hobbes, James Bond, science fiction, and Supreme Court decisions is a rare read. All the more impressive when it takes a complex set of urgent questions about the intersection of technology, security, and liberty, and offers insights and at least the beginnings of answers. Violence will be always with us, but its forms are changing in ways that challenge our ability to respond to and regulate it." -- "Anne-Marie Slaughter, president and CEO of New America foundation" "Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum have written a compelling and provocative book about an important topic we have not adequately faced: managing catastrophic risk in a technologically advanced society. I strongly recommend this book even for people who will not agree with the authors' conclusions." -- "Bruce Schneier, author of Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World" "In a globalized world facing widely distributed and technologically empowered threats, Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum develop a new and compelling vision for a twenty-first century legal and security architecture. Political leaders, judges, and citizens will find important guidance in this book." -- "Michael Chertoff, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security" "What the authors achieve in this work is to raise the profile of issues at the intersection of biology, technology, and government policy. Posing the challenges to safety now, before the technologies have matured, will give law and policymakers a head start on some of the issues they raise, while others--such as health monitoring of virulent diseases--have already made waves globally. Recommended to readers of governmental policy and the ethics of technology, who will be especially interested in this timely work." -- "Library Journal"