In BRAVE NEW WAR: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization (Wiley, May 2007, $27.95/Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-471-78079-3), Robb argues that terrorism has become global, and incredibly complex, because it exists inside a social and economic system that's become global and complex. Every new technology for improving the world system is also a tool for undoing it. The question John Robb is most concerned about boils down to: will terrorism, in the end, be able to destroy the current system? 

As BRAVE NEW WAR explains, system disruption lies at the heart of the agenda of this new generation of ad-hoc bands of like-minded insurgents. Instead of symbolic, or deadly attacks, we should be on the lookout for economically devastating attacks. Our enemy will be looking for gaps in the system where a small, cheap action—say, on an oil pipeline—will generate a tremendous return. From Iraq to Nigeria, Saudi Arabia to Chechnya and beyond, it's already spreading. Right now, the West is not prepared for it, and worse, we never can be truly prepared. No one can predict what the next catastrophic attack will be, because even now it's beyond the imagining of those who will perpetrate it.

The solution is what Robb refers to as deep resilience. We need to make our economic and communication systems more decentralized. If we can't stop an attack in advance, we can mitigate it. Right now, we've left ourselves too open to attack, with all our resources too concentrated. A simple, successful attack in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, or New York could shut down the world's oil, high-tech, or financial markets, costing millions. We have too few energy sources, too few shipping routes, too few companies making the components for all the things we need. Until Americans start seeing the world as John Robb does, we'll spend all our resources preventing the last attack, rather than the next one.

Taking steps to combat the shutdown of the world’s oil, high-tech, and financial markets could cost us the thing we’ve come to value the most: worldwide economic and cultural integration. Original, far-reaching, and informed, BRAVE NEW WAR makes the debate-changing argument we can’t afford to ignore.