Bytes and Bullets - by Steve Feldstein (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"A masterful, analytically rich account." --Booklist

"Scenarios that ought to frighten just about everyone." --Kirkus Reviews

New tech is changing the contours of geopolitical stability--America must act now, or risk losing its global standing forever.

Technology has always driven political competition. For decades, the US set the international rules on innovation, standards, and export regulations, using soft power and federal funding to both develop cutting edge tech and prevent its rivals from acquiring it. But in the digital era, major breakthroughs in everything from AI systems to autonomous drones now come from private companies, not government labs. It is already too late for superpowers to stop the outward flow of research and expertise. The fallout from this shift could dramatically reshape our world, and America is running out of time to act.

Bytes and Bullets is an analytically rich account of how technology is upending global competition. Through engaging stories and original research, Carnegie Endowment senior fellow Steve Feldstein explains how America's primacy is being undercut at every turn by commercialization, China's growing capabilities, and new regional powers building their own spheres of influence. He offers eye-opening insights from modern conflicts and proposes concrete strategies that democracies must adopt to shape the future.

Review Quotes

"Feldstein uses stories from Ukraine, the Middle East, Silicon Valley, and Beijing to explain one of the most important shifts in our time: the technologies that are rapidly reshaping warfare, geopolitics and economic competition. An obligatory read for anyone who wants to understand the new forces shaping the future."
--Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and staff writer for The Atlantic

"A comprehensive overview of the ways in which technological innovation has become the core of strategic competition today, and in particular how China's pursuit of key technologies puts American security at risk. Highly recommended as a guide to the new world of geopolitics."
--Francis Fukuyama, Senior Fellow, Stanford University

"The best book I've read on the intersection between emerging technologies and geopolitical competition in the 21st century. Deploying clear prose and precise arguments, Feldstein jumps effortlessly from the details of drones and rockets in the latest Armenian-Azerbaijan war to sweeping yet digestible assessments of the technological dimensions of great power competition...A must-read for anyone concerned about or trying to shape international politics today."
--Michael McFaul, author of Autocrats vs Democrats

"Feldstein is one of the world's foremost experts on democracy, war, and the digital revolution. This urgent and incisive book weaves together cutting-edge research with a sophisticated understanding of the forces reshaping international politics. At once timely and destined to become an obligatory reference, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to make sense of the new world taking shape around us."
--Moisés Naím, distinguished fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

"A masterful, analytically rich account...Feldstein seamlessly blends macro-level analysis with ground-level reporting from Ukraine, Silicon Valley, Beijing, and the Middle East, illustrating how America's primacy is undercut by commercialization, China's growing capabilities, and new regional powers building independent spheres of influence."
--Booklist

"For policy wonks, but with scenarios that ought to frighten just about everyone."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Couldn't be more timely. Mixes storytelling and analysis to illuminate the new technological arms race defining global competition."
--Peter Pomerantsev, journalist, bestselling author of How to Win an Information War and Nothing is True and Everything is Possible

"The placid reveries of these last few decades are about to be shattered by a new era of global conflict--one defined by a profusion of technologies even their creators don't fully understand. Steve Feldstein is among the guides I trust most in this uncertain landscape. He's the rare analyst with the breadth of knowledge, variety of experience, and clarity of vision to help the rest of us navigate the furious change that awaits."
--Josh Chin, senior Wall Street Journal correspondent, coauthor of Surveillance State

"Unmissable. Steve is a deep and original thinker on the security consequences of AI, one of the most transformative technologies of our time."
--Verity Harding, Cambridge University director of AI and geopolitics, author of AI Needs You

"Feldstein delivers a panoramic and cogent account of the characters, innovations, and states big and small that are reshaping technology, geopolitics, and international security. The consequences for American power and global relationships are still unfolding--and the choices ahead for policymakers and the public depend on the clear and compelling analysis this book delivers."
--Mariano-Florentino "Tino" Cuéllar, former California Supreme Court justice, former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

"Tech is reshaping power in ways we barely understand; Feldstein cuts through the noise to highlight what we need to know. His work on digital repression and global politics challenges conventional thinking and offers new perspectives on critical issues."
--Dr. Seva Gunitsky, University of Toronto professor, author of Aftershocks

"We hear a great deal about weaponized interdependence and the technological arms race, but this desperately needed to be corralled together into an accessible book with a coherent central thesis. Feldstein is a seriously talented and clear-headed thinker and he is the right man--given his connections, access and expertise--to write it."
--Dr. Matthew Ford, Swedish Defence University professor, coauthor of Radical War

About the Author

Steve Feldstein is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. An international expert on technology, democracy, and national security, he previously served as a senior official at the State Department and for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His first book, The Rise of Digital Repression, won the 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He has appeared on CNBC, ABC, CSPAN, NPR, and BBC, and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and Lawfare, among others.