veteran Ackermann, author of "2034" w admiral Stavridis, on the crystal meth of purpose
" Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine officer who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan before channeling that experience into four artful novels, including 2017’s “Dark at the Crossing,” a National Book Award finalist. Thrillers don’t get National Book Award nominations; Ackerman’s style is elliptical and interior, concerned with emotional consequences of armed conflict. While Stavridis was game for a collaboration, Ackerman was hesitant; tales of seafaring and high-level brinksmanship weren’t his thing. “I hadn’t worked with anyone before,” he says. “But I said, ‘Let’s see if we can write the first chapter.’” .... " As in any speculative novel, the vision of the future is intended to speak to the present; Stavridis and Ackerman wanted to serve a warning about American hubris. A Chinese admiral observes that Americans’ “moral certitude, their single-minded determination, their blithe optimism undermined them at this moment as they struggled to find a solution to a problem they didn’t understand.” "... “Look at the great tragedies in American history,” says Ackerman. “Pearl Harbor, what was it? A failure of imagination. One of the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission Report was that Sept. 11 was a failure of imagination on the part of intelligence agencies and law enforcement. You can argue that this pandemic we’re going through is yet another failure of imagination. At a certain point, imagination does become a national-security imperative.” From the review of 2034 in Latimes 4 mars 2021 (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-04/admiral-james-stavridis-and-elliot-ackerman-team-up-to-write-global-thriller-2034)