Kjellquist Blog

Dark Territory is a very readable non-technical account of the history cyber warfare, attacks (both on the US and by the US) and the political machinations of the past 20+ years. Though Kaplan presents a straight forward history of our cyber environment, the implications are down right frightening. In much of Dark Territory there is a discussion of the political state of cyber warfare.
For example, our current state of affairs in cyber warfare is likened to the very early days of the nuclear era right after WWII. At that time political leaders grappled with issues such as what circumstances would justify a nuclear strike. Over decades, there evolved policies by all nuclear nations that have precluded a nuclear confrontation.
The leaders of nearly every government are in a similar state for cyber warfare. However, unlike a nuclear attack there maybe no immediately known perpetrator. Nearly, all attacks are intended to disguise their source. Another significant difference is that cyber warfare can be waged by almost any nation-state and even non-state actors.
Even a simple question as to what constitutes cyber war is difficult to answer.
For example, was the physical destruction of thousands of Iranian nuclear centrifuges by the Stuxnet computer virus an act of war? What was appropriate for an Iranian response?
In the case of the North Korean hacks of the Sony Corporation, what is an appropriate response to an attack designed to influence the behavior of a corporation?
Of course, no matter the answer to these kinds of questions; there is always the risk of an escalating response and counter-response with ever increasing severity of consequences.
Dark Territory is mostly a history. Kaplan does an excellent job of recounting several cyber attacks on the US with code names like eligible Receiver, and Moonlight Maze, As well as our cyber attack, Olympic Games, on the Iranian nuclear centrifuges.
In general, Kaplan does not pull any punches. He names names and attribution of motives across the US security organizations. It is clear that Kaplan has had the advantage of non-attribution interviews of the key individuals in this history.
The overall conclusion that the reader will draw from this book is that there have been some visionaries that see the dangers of our cyber environment. However, in nearly every case these visionaries have been ineffective in getting our government, military or commercial institutions from taking the threats seriously. This despite examples of actual attacks. Dark Territory should be a belated wake up to cyber world we live in.

  The Sea Mark by Russell M. Layton is a very interesting and revealing book about the little known later life of Capt. John Smith. Most of us have heard or read about Capt John Smith’s association with the ill fated Jamestown colony of 1607. His larger than life exploits with native Americans and Pocahontas have become standard grade school lore.

In The Sea Mark, Mr. Layton has undertaken a very sizable job of sorting out the real John Smith. This is not for lack of written record of John Smith’s life. But, rather, nearly all the material was written by John Smith himself with the goal of promoting the colonization of “new England”. Because of this need to clearly illuminate Smith’s motives and views, The Sea Mark isn’t the easiest book to read. In many critical areas Mr. Layton makes use of direct quotes of John Smith including the original 17th century spelling. Where names of flora and fauna are completely different, Mr. Layton does show there modern identities.

However, as often happens the real Capt John Smith is actually more interesting than the simple man of legend. As background to his voyage to “new England” and explain to John Smith, the man, Mr. Layton describes John Smith’s life before Jamestown. As only a teenager John Smith served as a mercenary fighting the Spaniards. Though not born to the sea and with little formal education, Smith became an excellent seaman. While fighting as mercenary against the Ottoman Turks, he was captured and sold as a slave. As a slave, Smith was taken to the Crimea where he was able to escape after killing his master. He wandered through the continent eventually ending in North Africa where he joined a French ship and was able to make his way back to England.

For readers of northern New England, the chapters of The Sea Mark describing the detailed exploration of the coast of Maine and Massachusetts will read like a travelogue. Mr. Layton provides such detail that many sailors will be tempted to recreate sections of his voyage to experience what Smith saw along the rocky coast of Maine.

After the interesting chapters on “new England”, Mr. Layton turns to the remainder of Smith’s life attempting to return to “new England” and create a permanent colony. Unfortunately, this was to never happen. It is unfortunate that Smith’s efforts to lead a permanent colony never happened. His knowledge of the region and its native peoples would have changed history.

Overall, The Sea Mark is a very engrossing  read (particularly for New Englanders) that fills in little known elements of the Capt John Smith folklore.

Lincoln in the World by Kevin Peraino is not your regular biographical history of President Lincoln during the American Civil War. If you are looking for biography of Lincoln, I don’t recommend this book. However, if you are generally familiar with Lincoln and are looking for a different perspective to fill in your knowledge; this book is for you.

Peraino organizes the book in an usual way, focusing on specific relationships between Lincoln and key persons of the period. In this way Peraino illustrates the development of Lincoln, the statesman and diplomat. While never leaving the United States and much focused on the Civil War, Lincoln certainly had his share of international crises and demonstrated quite a high level of skill in international relations. Perhaps the most important was to ensure that no European power sided with the Confederacy.

In the section Lincoln vs. Seward the reader will learn a good deal about Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Henry Seward. At first being rivals for the presidential nomination, Lincoln and Seward grew to be quite an effective diplomatic team relying on each others strengths.

I found a quote from Seward to be very apropos of a political view much needed today “I learned early from Jefferson that, in political affairs, we cannot always do what seems to us absolutely best. We must be content to lead when we can; and to follow when we cannot lead; and if we cannot at any time do for our country all the good that we would wish, we must be satisfied with doing for her all the good that we can.”

A second quote from Seward gave me great pause to consider current world and our relationship to China. Seward said “The nation that draws the most materials from the earth, and fabricates the most, and sells the most of productions and fabrics to foreign nations, must be, and will be the great power of the earth.”

In the section Lincoln vs. Palmerston, describes the diplomatic balancing act needed to manage the economic effects of king cotton on the British economy. Peraino’s descriptions of the Trent Affair (abduction of Confederate agents Mason and Sidell from British ship, HMS Trent, in international waters) is an excellent example of the Lincoln/ Seward diplomacy.

Most readers know Karl Marx for his Communist Manifesto. Little known to this reader was that Karl Marx was quite the international journalist and critical observer of the American scene during the Civil War. In the section Lincoln vs Karl Marx, we learn that he was one of the most widely read columnists of New York Tribune.

I found the section on Lincoln vs. Napoleon perhaps the most interesting. In the deep recesses of my memory I knew the basics of Napoleon’s ventures in Mexico and his installation of Maximilian as puppet Mexican emperor. However, what was surprising to me was uproar in the United States to invade Mexico at the same time

Particularly interesting was a 4 hour meeting between the Confederacy’s Vice President, Alexander Stephens, Lincoln and Seward at Hampton Roads, Va on February 3,1865. The topic was a serious proposal by Stevens for the Union and Confederate armies to join forces and invade Mexico to expel the French army! Lincoln was skeptical of the proposal and nothing came of it.