Deterring Armageddon

Hugely impressive * Independent * A well-researched, highly readable account of the military, strategic - and indeed personal - twists and turns in NATO's history ... fascinating and enthralling ... relevant and important. -- Lord Robertson, former NATO Secretary General * The House magazine * Explains in absorbing detail the conception, birth and life [of NATO] so far ... an astonishingly fine history. * Country Life * A masterful portrait of an organisation often misunderstood but absolutely central to much of contemporary international politics ... expertly crafted. * Irish Independent * Utterly eye-opening - compelling, haunting and continually illuminating. As Peter Apps so brilliantly demonstrates in this gripping book, the story of the NATO alliance is in many ways a parallel global history of the last 75 years. As well as all the outbreaks of seething tension between the US and its European allies - and the counter-moves of rival powers - this is also an account of just how often in those postwar years that we all stood on the edge of the most terrible abyss. With mesmerising fluency, and dazzling research, Apps follows the criss-crossing threads of the Cold War and beyond. Those threads converge in our shadowed present, and the conflict in Ukraine. In order to fathom today's dark world, Apps has explored a labyrinth of once-classified history, and he brings dazzling clarity. * Sinclair McKay * Peter Apps has created a quintessential guide for understanding NATO, from its historical development to its future pathways... Deterring Armageddon is a must-read as we enter a new era of heightened global risk and shock events. * Dr Maha Hosain Aziz * Compelling and informative - a must-read for anyone serious about understanding both the history and future of Western military strategy. * Anna-Joy Rickard, the Great British Foreign Affairs Podcast *