The Guarded Age - by David J Betz (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came to symbolize the dawn of a new era of openness and connectivity. Yet today, the world is ever more divided, demarcated, and - quite literally - fortified. We are living in a guarded age.

Why and how has this happened? Where will it take us? In this book, David J. Betz explores the expansion of fortified physical infrastructure at every level of the global political economy. In cities, where security is increasingly 'designed in' to public buildings and spaces as they are reshaped to mitigate mass terror attacks. Within corporations, who are burying their electronic assets in deep underground caverns and behind the leaded walls of ex-nuclear war bunkers against a range of threats and feared contingencies. In many urban areas, where the default condition of civil life is to be walled, gated, watched, and guarded. Year after year, hundreds of miles of linear obstacles - walls, ditches, and watchtowers - are added to national borders. Practically everywhere you look there are signs of innovative fortification, often designed to be overlooked. The Guarded Age reveals the barriers which most have observed but few - until reading this book - have truly seen.

Review Quotes

"Betz manages to unearth a transformation under our noses: even as castles and fortresses become tourist spots and museums, the world is growing more thoroughly fortified than ever. Both comprehensive and detailed, this book is a vital resource for anyone who wants to understand the shape of security today."
Jonathan D. Askonas, The Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America

"Informed by history but applied to the contemporary era, The Guarded Age provides a novel and insightful conceptualisation of fortification strategies. Lucid and engaging, it will be essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of fortification."
David Blagden, University of Exeter

"Of Sparta people said that, having men to defend it, it did not need walls. Today, as The Guarded Age shows, walls, visible and invisible, physical and electronic, are going up in countless places, from private homes to airfields. So what does the construction of walls portend for the future? A superb book, timely, clear, and as well written as any book I've ever seen."
Martin van Creveld, Hebrew University

"In this intriguing book, David J. Betz analyses the proliferation of fortifications across the world today. He fuses a sharp autobiographical eye with deep historical awareness to show that, while urban fortifications are a response to immediate threats posed by globalization, they are old and, indeed, ancient solutions to an eternal problem of security which human societies have faced since the foundation of the very first cities."
Anthony King, author of Urban Warfare in the Twenty-First Century

"The Guarded Age identifies an important development that has escaped much notice: the resurgence of modern-day barriers, bastions, impediments, and "hardening" as a security measure. Whether it takes the form of limiting access, channeling movement along observable or guarded paths, or hiving off areas from outside access, the construction of physical barriers continues today at a breakneck pace. David J. Betz describes the rise of this defensive strategy, offering important insights into our unexpected and little recognized turn towards "fortification", a security practice that many believe lost its luster in the late Middle Ages."
James J. Wirtz, Naval Postgraduate School

About the Author

David Betz is Professor of War in the Modern World in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Centre. He has written four books, most recently Carnage and Connectivity: Landmarks in the Decline of Conventional Military Power (OUP), and dozens of chapters and articles on problems of contemporary strategy and warfare. He regularly advises governments and armies on a range of issues including cybersecurity, counterinsurgency doctrine, strategic communications, and future warfare.