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The Battle Beyond
Fighting and Winning the Coming War in Space
Reading like a textbook from the future, The Battle Beyond is an erudite guide to the militarization of outer space.
Paul Szymanski and Jerry Drew’s military text The Battle Beyond explores the tactical, strategic, and operational levels of space warfare with depth and creativity.
In five thorough chapters, this book investigates the levels of terrestrial warfare and applies them to the space domain. It defines language at the tactical level, sharing pages of military symbols that might be employed for space operations. The visual and verbal language of military operations, in which tactical means are employed for strategic ends, is also addressed. An examination of military strategy closes the book, alongside the intonation that space warfare is inevitable, even if its exact nature remains the subject of speculation.
Indeed, insightful speculation is one of this book’s greatest strengths. Information about warfare on the land, in the air, and at sea is shared to bolster the book’s multifaceted portrayal of the unique challenges posed by militaries entering the space domain. Where applicable, historical references and analogies are used; some hypotheticals are also deployed to further understanding, as with musings on weaponeering, boundary drawing, and threats following the militarization of outer space.
Throughout, Szymanski and Drew draw upon military history and theory to make their informed projections; credible citations are included to validate their claims. Figures and tables numbering well over one hundred add a visual component to these educational efforts, and the symbology lesson in chapter two is exhaustive and innovative. For example, the ground icon for “jamming” is combined with a star icon to denote a familiar tactic in a new domain. And the book’s symbols are colorful and effective, as with the icons for “solar flares” and “meteor showers.” However, a few of the tables of images featured in the text are blurry or formatted in an awkward way, which detracts from the book’s ultimate delivery.
The book’s use of vignettes is likewise distracting. Taken on their own, they are of interest, as with an in-depth case study of a hypothetical conflict between two fictional countries. But instead of standing on their own, they are tacked onto the end of the introduction and other chapters, and they interrupt the surrounding work rather than complementing it.
Insightful, creative, and thorough, The Battle Beyond is a military theory text that looks toward space to make its enthusiastic predictions.
Reviewed by
Hannah Pearson
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
