2020 World at War - a book review

This book neatly and succinctly sets its aims out at the very beginning. What if there were a modern day take on the seminal work "The Third World War" by General Sir John Hackett? Bookending the contributor scenarios, the editor does a good job of highlighting not only the dangers of predicting the future but also the timey, wimey, wibbly, wobbly nature of such works. Sadly, it falls foul of the very goal it aims for.

Each of the sections takes a slightly different take on world geopolitics between 2017 and 2020. Needless to say, Brexit, Islamic terrorism and China feature heavily. To be fair, some aren't bad, though real life events have already taken over several of these scenarios (the 2017 General Election being just one example). As such, it falters in its, admittedly "we are not worthy" comparision to Hackett's work.

The key problem is that Hackett and his contributors had time on their side. Their book was published in 1978 (and the follow up in 1982) and this gave them plenty of time between publication and their speculative future 1985. With 2020, there isn't that gap. already dated in some aspects, it becomes far less interesting when the speculation it provides has already been removed from the bounds of probability by actual events. A similar fate has befallen 2017: War with Russia, although that tome did smack of being an opportunist rather than a more considered approach like 2020.

Still, some of the scenarios are interesting and there are one or two that could have been expanded, rather than just being left as more of a teaser.

Overall, it's not a bad book by any means and if you have any interest in speculative fiction, I advise you to give it a go. Just try not to hold them to their Hackett comparisons.