Soft Wars — Selmer Bringsjord

Written when apparently just a student by well-known AI guru Selmer Bringsjord, this book is a bit of a cult classic for its prescience (it predicted the coup against Gorbachev) and its treatment of nuclear missile defense logic. What would happen if America was struck by the surgical use of nuclear weapons, and the bad guys has a missile defense system in their pocket? I recommend you read Soft Wars and find out. An amazing tapestry of a plot, with ingenious sub-plots. It's worth the wait to dig a copy up.