The Next World War is a slightly disappointing book. It reads more like a well-organized scrapbook of events from 2025 than a coherent analysis with real narrative force. The author clearly knows his subject matter – the geopolitics, the military hardware, the policy details are all there. But the execution lacks life.
The comparison is instructive. I recently read Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swift, two New York Times journalists writing about Trump’s second term. That book grabs you. The dialogue feels immediate, as if you are in the room watching it unfold. You see people move, hear them speak, feel the weight of decisions being made in real time. See https://www.elpdialogues.com/news-item/trump-as-a-leader/ for my review.
The Next World War offers none of that texture. It is mostly recitation: this happened, then that happened, and here is what it means.
Apps makes clear that Taiwan represents the greatest security risk in the years ahead. That argument comes through. So does his analysis that Russia will not stop in Ukraine. But what struck me most was his assessment of European thinking: that several European countries almost prefer Russia remains locked in Ukraine, because they fear that the end of the war there would simply redirect Putin’s aggression toward the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. That calculation clarifies that the support for Ukraine is genuine, but it is also strategic self-interest.
The weakness of this book is not in the analysis but in the telling. A book about geopolitical risk and the possibility of major-power conflict should make you feel the stakes. It should create tension, show you the people wrestling with these decisions, let you glimpse the uncertainties they face. Instead, Apps gives you a ledger. Events are recorded, connections are drawn, conclusions are stated. The reader remains at a distance.
Every leader must understand the global landscape ahead. For that there is useful material here. But you will work harder than you should to extract it. A better book would have made that work easier by drawing you in from the first page.
Peter Apps. The Next World War. The new age of global conflict and the fight to stop it. Wildfire, 2026