In Three Dangerous Men defence expert Seth Jones argues that the US is woefully unprepared for
the future of global competition. While America has focused on building fighter jets missiles
and conventional warfighting capabilities its three principal rivals-Russia China and
Iran-have increasingly adopted irregular warfare: cyber-attacks the use of proxy forces
propaganda espionage and disinformation to undermine American power. Jones profiles three
pioneers of irregular warfare in Moscow Beijing and Tehran who adapted American techniques and
made huge gains without waging traditional warfare: Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov
the deceased Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani and vice chairman of China's Central
Military Commission Zhang Youxia. Each has spent his career studying American power and devised
techniques to avoid a conventional or nuclear war with the US. Gerasimov helped oversee a
resurgence of Russian irregular warfare which included attempts to undermine the 2016 and 2020
US presidential elections and the SolarWinds cyber-attack. Soleimani was so effective in
expanding Iranian power in the Middle East that Washington targeted him for assassination.
Zhang Youxia presents the most alarming challenge because China has more power and potential at
its disposal. Drawing on interviews with dozens of US military diplomatic and intelligence
officials as well as hundreds of documents translated from Russian Farsi and Mandarin Jones
shows how America's rivals have bloodied its reputation and seized territory worldwide. Instead
of standing up to autocratic regimes Jones demonstrates that the United States has largely
abandoned the kind of information special operations intelligence and economic and diplomatic
action that helped win the Cold War. In a powerful conclusion Jones details the key steps the
United States must take to alter how it thinks about-and engages in-competition before it is
too late.
