MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine
by Andrew Cockburn
Verso £15.96
WHEN the Financial Times recently reported that China had successfully launched an untraceable, nuclear-capable “hypersonic” missile, the news spread across Western media like a virus.
It was great timing for the US Air Force, coming as the Biden administration undertakes the Nuclear Posture Review, which will now almost certainly slosh even more arms dollars on modernising their bloated ballistic arsenal.
But the timing was also great for Andrew Cockburn, who devotes an entire chapter of this book to the largely spurious hypersonic “threat.”
Expanding Britain’s nuclear capability increases the risk of nuclear confrontation. It does not keep us safe – it makes us a target, argues CAROL TURNER
A US air strike in north-west Nigeria, publicly framed as a Christmas act of counterterrorism, reveals a deeper shift in how power is exercised in Africa, argues RAIS NEZA BONEZA
From 35,000 troops in Talisman Sabre war games to HMS Spey provocations in the Taiwan Strait, Labour continues Tory militarisation — all while claiming to uphold ‘one China’ diplomatic agreements from 1972, reports KENNY COYLE


