The 7 Best Military Books That Envision The Near Future Of Warfare

In the last decade, a certain type of military book has come to dominate national security circles alongside traditional meditations on the future of warfare. Call it the "E-ring thriller": Part technical manual and part speculative fiction, these engrossing techno-thrillers use "FICINT" -- "the combination of fiction writing with intelligence to imagine future scenarios in ways grounded in reality," as the Army War College puts it -- to imagine the near future of warfare with a sense of knowledge and authenticity that evokes the style of beloved authors like Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton. These books aren't just entertaining, but cheat sheets to the forces and trends, technologies and adversaries that will in, all likelihood, shape the next big war (just don't expect to see the powered armor of Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" make an appearance).

With that in mind, here's a look at some of the best military books that look ahead to coming conflicts -- with a hope that, perhaps, they won't unfold the way they've been envisioned.