The Third World War [Paperback]

Centred on the constant hostility between India and Pakistan, a coup in North Korea and an uprising of Muslim fundamentalism across Asia is thrown into the mix, and before the rest of the world knows it we are on the brink of nuclear war.

The circumstances in which this all occurs are highly plausible, although they possibly lean on a fairly shaky conspiracy a little too heavily. The idea is that a military faction in Pakistan has allied itself with a rogue North Korean general who seizes power and begins to threaten the safety of the South, Japan and other US interests in the area. Terrorist attacks by Muslim-centred terror groups also spring up to destabilise the region.

The US is (very) slow to react, and unfortunately Hawskley loses his way a little bit and bogs down much of the middle portion of the book with too much talking, philosophising and hokey diplomacy. Not an awful lot happens whilst the US president wrings his hands and fails to act convincingly at any point, whilst the Chinese begin to become prominent as the nation looking to gain the most from all this.

This lengthy lull in the action finally leads into a shattering series of cataclysmic events which don't hang together too well as they appear to suddenly just happen for dramatic purposes. The motives and thought processes of the world leaders who begin ordering nuclear strikes all over the place are not too clear and it all ends rather abruptly.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting read and frightening in the respect of despite the book's few flaws, many of the events and actions taken are easy to believe. Worth a look.

This book centres on biological and nuclear warfare triggered by the unrealistic ambitions of North Korea and Pakistan - two countries that are currently liasing in real life on the development of weapons of mass destruction. It is scary because of the (often unwise) rapid-fire decisions that are taken by alarmingly ill-prepared world leaders, especially an (unsurprisingly) knee-jerk-prone US president and a blunderbuss of a British prime minister who punches energetically above his country's weight so that he can play alongside the president. There is no ultimate winner - certainly not Pakistan and North Korea, which get punished for their mad leaders' adventurism, nor the US, Russia, China and India. Mr Hawksley would like us to see India coming out best, both in terms of its responsibility during the crisis and its chances of recovery from the holocaust. Indeed he has told me that he sees India as a "moral guiding force of the whole book, putting everyone else to shame" because (as in his earlier Dragon Fire) it resists, for as long as it can, the escalatory spiral that engulfs the rest of the world.

Mr Hawksley knows his characters well. As a BBC tv reporter, he has interviewed world leaders and army and intelligence chiefs in many parts of the world - especially India and China where he has lived and visits frequently. He has good sources in the corridors of power and policy institutes of the US and other countries, which he taps before writing each novel - making each one a worthwhile read.

Hawkesly’s TTWW is quite an interesting concept – linking rogue Koreans with Islamic fundamentalists, but the leaps of credibility he asks us to make spoil the basic premise. His characters are unremittingly heroic, weasely and self –serving, or just plain brutal. I can’t help feeling that in spite his impressive journalistic credentials he hasn’t really got under the skin of the Chinese, Russians or certain brands of Muslim fanatic. His main Muslim character is a thinly veiled pastiche of what little we know of OBL.

The characters he admires – like the Indian or British PMs are square jawed men of action – witness the opening scene in the assault on the Indian Parliament… His Chinese premier ‘Jamie’ (?) is frankly laughable.

What’s missing is the worm’s eye view present in Hackett’s TTWW and in Clancy’s RSR – we get all the high level hotline diplomatic conversations – but this needs cutting with what Joe, Ahmed and Lieu (or their female equivalents) on the ground think. Where minor characters appear they are wooden and one sided – like the SAS officer in Brunei.

The Korean villain Park is straight out of Ian Fleming and unremittingly wicked with no light and shade.

Despite the fact it appears to have been rushed out hard on the heels of the Iraq war, even though that conflict is far from resolved, it’s a good read and will appeal to fans of Clancy or those with a long journey ahead of them.