Chapters (60)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Prologue
- PART ONE
- Kharkiv, Ukraine
- The President’s weekly defense and foreign policy meeting, The Kremlin, Moscow
- Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC), Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Belgium
- Briefing Room, Boryspill Air Force Base, Ukraine
- The Kremlin, Moscow
- Washington, D.C.
- Residence of DSACEUR La Belle Alliance, Erbisoeul, Belgium
- North Atlantic Council Conference Room, NATO Headquarters, Brussels
- Banks of River Daugava, Riga, Latvia
- Ādaži Training Camp, Latvia
- Riga, Latvia
- National Defense Control Center, Moscow
- Ādaži Training Camp, Latvia
- NATO Headquarters, Brussels
- National Armed Forces Joint HQ, Riga, Latvia
- Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Mons, Belgium
- Central European Time 1600 hours, Eastern Standard Time, The White House, Washington, D.C.
- Lielvārde Air Base, Latvia
- Lielvārde Air Base, Latvia
- Camp David, Catoctin Mountains, Maryland
- British Embassy, 5, J.Alunana Street, Riga, Latvia
- The Russell Arms, Butler’s Cross, Buckinghamshire
- HMS Queen Elizabeth Middle Slip Jetty, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth
- National Defense Control Center, Moscow
- Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC) SHAPE headquarters, Mons, Belgium
- Somewhere in the forest, Gauja National Park, Latvia
- 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London
- HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Baltic Sea
- Control Room, Kilo Class submarine Krasnokamensk, Baltic Sea
- PART TWO
- Prime Minister’s Office, House of Commons, London
- The Presidential Dacha Barvikha, Odintsovsky District of Moscow Oblast
- The White House, Washington, D.C.
- NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
- Gauja National Park Forest, Latvia
- PART THREE
- “The Tank,” Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
- North Atlantic Council NATO Headquarters, Brussels
- Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Cheltenham, England
- GCHQ, Cheltenham, England
- Forest south of Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad, Russia
- Headquarters, Kaliningrad Special Region, Kaliningrad
- The President’s Office, The Kremlin, Moscow
- Forest south of Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad, Russia
- Comprehensive Crisis Operations Management Center (CCOMC) SHAPE headquarters, Mons, Belgium
- Command Bunker, Iskander Missile Battery Pravdinsk, Kaliningrad
- Over Wroclaw, Poland
- Forest north of Pravdinsk Iskander Battery, Kaliningrad
- 25,000 feet above Kaliningrad
- Close to the Pravdinsk Iskander Battery, Kaliningrad
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
While many of the characters and names in the events of 2017 are purely fictional, others are based on, or named after, individuals I have known. I am indebted to those who have generously allowed me to draw on their individual characteristics or to name fictional characters after them. I trust you will understand if I do not acknowledge you all individually.
The foundations of this project have been my family without whose encouragement, support and objective criticism the book would never have been completed. In particular, my loyal companions Delilah and Maisie, our two springer spaniels, have been instrumental in applying the adage “solvitur ambulando”—“it is solved by walking,” which has overcome many an impasse. But more important than anything else, and utterly consistent throughout the nearly thirty-six years we have been married, the rock on which everything has been built has been my beloved wife Sarah-Jane, to whom I owe more than I can ever say. No thanks and gratitude can ever be enough for what she has done, and continues to do for me.
Notes
1. “Potemkin village” derives from the deception efforts of Prince Potemkin, statesman and favorite of Catherine the Great, who erected dummy villages along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to fool the Empress into thinking that the area was settled and prosperous during her visit to the Crimea in 1787.
2. The NATO Secretary General (Sec Gen): invariably a distinguished international figure who is responsible for leading the North Atlantic Council (NAC), the decision-making body of NATO, coordinating the effective working of the Alliance and leading the NATO staff. The current incumbent and his predecessor are both former prime ministers of their respective nations.
3. The Chairman of the Military Committee (CMC) is NATO’s senior military officer and the principal military adviser to the Secretary General and the North Atlantic Council. He also directs the daily business of the Military Committee, a body made up of senior officers from all NATO members and responsible for providing advice on military policy and strategy.
4. Nickname given to the Special Boat Service.
5. The salted pork fat beloved as a taster to vodka.