The Third World War - Humphrey Hawksley

The premier of a country is caught in the line of fire between armed terrorists and the army, for self defense and protection of his daughter he grabs an uzi submachine gun, guns down a terrorist and takes his daughter to safety......NO I am not talking about Harrison Ford in Airforce One....its the Prime Minister of India caught in crossfire in the Parliament House.... this is how the book begins.

The book is set in 2005 wherein the new set of leaders have come into power. What starts of as a skirmish between Pakistan and India develops into a global conflict with countries from the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia stop looking forward to US as a policing nation and look forward to establishing their own say.

The book essentially is a build up of events in the past one decade and more specifically post 9/11 and post Iraq Invasion where the Mid East is silenced and there are uprisings in the rogue nations of South East Asia which results in despotic leaders taking charge in North Korea and Pakistan, and challenge the US for supremacy using weapons of mass destruction, and finally countries are forced to take sides and form alliances. It is but one permutation of what would happen in case of a global conflict and who will support whom. It is about men at high places who sometimes due to pressure, externally from other countries and internally within their own country, have to make few drastic decisions which affects the lives of millions, its about a time bomb on which we are sitting, about things which we read, comment upon, argue about, sympathize about, but never believe that it would take place, an event of a nuclear and biological holocaust.

Humphrey Hawksley, as you may know, was(don’t know if he still is) a BBC correspondent and has also written few articles varying from India’s nuclear capability to plight of Roma gypsy community in Greece, from terrorist attack in Russia to the voice of the Cuban people, taking this into account, he has the knowledge and understanding about the various countries, their culture, beliefs, the threats they perceive and their perspective of the world. He has used this knowledge to predict how a particular country would in the time of a crisis. His style of writing is quite lucid, easy to understand and to the point.

If you read the books as an entertainer, it would definitely prove to be a good one at that and a fast moving one too, its written in a no-nonsense format where only essential things are mentioned and no unwanted facts are fed to the reader. The plot , the events(though some may beg to differ and say that the whole story looks like a bunch of kids throwing stones at each other at will and in this case its Nuclear weapons instead of stones ), the characters are all believable(though the Indian Prime Ministers characterization is more westernized and is more like a CEO of a Multinational and does not resemble any PM India has had). For a more thoughtful person, analyzing the story, it would look like a warning signal, to be taken seriously and to be nipped at the bud, and for a person trying to look for the hidden message, the book would sound like a justification of the current US action of invading Iraq and making sure that no rogue nation have NBC(Nuclear Biological and Chemical) weapons.

At the end of the day you are left wondering about the whole purpose of a war, when we, so called intelligent beings, know about the horrors it causes and still decide that its the only option left, even at the cost of our own destruction? How can few people sitting in top decide the fate of millions of innocent beings and that too by the worst of the means? Is this all what technological advancement means? Is this the real face of our future?

All that keeps lingering in the mind is the quote by Bertrand Russell , how aptly put :-

''War does not determine who is right - only who is left.''

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If you're looking for a book that tells you how devastating, an all out nuclear war will be, this is the book for you. Humphrey Hawksley has a brilliantly plotted and an extremely well scripted book to boast about. It also showcases the technical capabilities of various nations. This book is clearly a product of a lot of background research. The author has exploited his connections with various sources within governments to the maximum. This book provides the closest scenario to a possible real life situation.The plot is set along the lines of the American war on terrorism. It focusses along terrorist elements attempting to create a new nation and how this attempt results as a series of chain-reactions into a nuclear spectre. Remarkably though, it shows India as a rising superpower, contrary to the pro-Pakistani views shown by most western authors. There are almost no complexities in the book and even a layman can understand it quite easily. Tom Clancy sure has a new competitior. A must read.

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Humphrey Hawksley who has authored this book , is a well known BBC Correspondent and as such has an excellent grasp and perspective of the political and historical backdrop to the world affairs. He has an excellent style of narrative which is logical, chronological and easy to understand. He would make an excellent film editor. I found this book better than Tom Clancy’s. Humphrey has among his admirers ( Besides me); George Fernandes, Craig Thomas, Chris Patten, Stephen Coonts & Phillip Knightley to name a few. As has been forecast, WW-III starts in Asia, triggered by Indo-Pak hostilities. This gripping Novel about the cataclysmic WW III , has Vasant Mehta as the Indian Prime Minister, a very well etched character. Mehta fortunately does not resemble or remind us of any one in the existing political scenario. Only Jaswant Singh comes to mind, but he too does not fit the role of Vasant Mehta fully. Now the gist; Indian Parliament is bombed leaving thousands dead, Pakistani President , a childhood friend of Vasant Mehta is assassinated while on visit abroad, hardcore , fanatic dictators take over the reins in Pakistan and North Korea. US military base is hit by a North Korean Missile tipped with biological war head, Racecourse road residence of PM is bombed, thus starting a series of events culminating in a horrifying Nuclear Armageddon. India, though badly destroyed with all it’s major cities nuked, emerges as the lone sane voice of reason and becomes a beacon of hope for the new civilisation to rebuild the world. Pakistan and many other countries have ceased to exist. It is a bone-chilling scenario with authentic detailing, presenting a vivid spectre of horrendous dimensions that looms large ahead. It is an ominous and insightful novel that calls for urgent attention the world powers need to pay to the current state of affairs and emerging scenario of extremist violence, before it is too late. Many foreign writers including celebrity authors known for their research, make silly mistakes when it comes to India. Thankfully here, Humphrey, asides a few spelling mistakes ( Raisana Hill), has got all things (Indian) right. I recommend this book strongly to all book lovers and the “thinking’ readers.

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