A vivid and bracing examination of today’s most secretive geopolitical conflict: the battle for dominance beneath the oceans.

History’s most powerful weapon. The crucial sinews of global finance. The next frontier in the competition for critical minerals, and the new front lines of possible war with China and Russia. This is maritime geopolitics at its most urgent—a high-tech, high-stakes arms race unfolding in the deep.

Senior Brookings Institution fellow Bruce Jones takes us inside a US nuclear-powered submarine—the most advanced war machine in modern history—as it travels to some of the nation’s most secret locations. The book charts the evolving landscape of submarine warfare and the rise of undersea robotics, and shows how America is fighting to maintain its crucial technological edge while rivals seek to close the gap. It reveals how China views the undersea domain as both its greatest strategic vulnerability and a potential treasure trove of critical resources. Meanwhile, Russia is deploying advanced submarine designs to revive its geopolitical influence and threaten vital US and European seabed infrastructure. The Arctic, the north Atlantic, and the Western Pacific have become flashpoints in a submerged power rivalry—while new technology and new powers are pulling the world’s most dangerous arms race into the Indian Ocean.

What Michael Lewis does for high finance, Bruce Jones does for global security in Sub War: a gripping tour of the technological, economic, and military frontiers beneath the waves reshaping the future world order.