I just finished War by Other Means. My background includes some Information Security work for the armed forces, an MBA and pretty good exposure to various parts of the world (having lived in Germany about 5 years during the height of the Cold War, but not the Far East).

My background includes the knowledge and life's experience from a number of diverse points of view, including one that involved my graduate education which took place at Central Missouri State University -- yes, the Chinese Communists were there, and so were others from Thailand, Taiwan, FSU, and so forth.

Let me tell you, if you are one of the 'commoners' (I mean that in a humourous way- it is part of the vernacular for those who are not practioners, and is not meant in a disparaging way) this book makes absolute sense. Yes, our brain pool is being examined and drained by foreign governments. No longer do we have warfare conducted in military terms on a vast scale such as WW II, but the massed hordes are now within our borders, slowly leaking our country dry (I'm surprised that Fialka didn't include the analogy of the frog being boiled alive, not realizing what was happening to itself). Reverse engineering and other methods are alive and well.

May God help us!

Fialka' work is an excellent primer on yester-year industrial espionage(The book is a little out-dated). In fact, it still goes on, and it is just as it has been described by the title - it goes on silently.

There are various incidents that are described in great detail about the Chinese, French, and the other "Allies" who constantly spy on their friends and other industrialised nations, and this book will serve as a jolting shock to anybody who runs a Company in a competitive economy.

Great book, lucidly written, and highly recommended!

After showing that economic espionage is an age-old problem, Fialka quickly propels us into 1997, showing economic espionage occurring on a grand scale. The book is replete with examples and categorizes the major styles of this business. These are comprised of 1) those countries like China, Taiwan, and South Korea who target present and former nationals working for U.S. companies and research institutions, 2) classic Cold War recruitment methods which Russia, Israel, and Germany use to varying levels, and 3) the economic intelligence gatherers who prey on accessing company proprietary documents and data, the most successful of which is Japan. I very much agree with Fialka's assertion that the NSA, CIA, and FBI have hitherto shown they are not capable of dealing with this issue and, in my longer review (see http://www.sscs.net/bookstore/book-review-wbom.html), I discuss some of the reasons why. This book is an exceptional piece of work. Very rare indeed is the time when I find myself underlining, highlighting, and writing comments in the leaf.

Fialka served as a reporter during the first Gulf War in 1991. This small volume documents the trials and tribulations of FIalka and other members of the press corps dealing with the military, which in most respects was wary of the press, based on experiences lingering from Vietnam.
However, Fialka has more criticisms...his own peers in the press share an equal blame in his eyes, based on the way they handled themselves within the press pool, frequently trying to one up the other. He also criticizes the press organizations who sent reporters with no experience dealing with military matters to cover, what up to this point, was the largest military story since the Vietnam War.
Fialka does have some positive things to say: his praise for the Marine Corp's ability to handle the press stands in stark contrast to that of the US Army. He also praises the tenacity of the reporters that bucked the pool system to get the real story, even risking their own lives to do so.
THis book is an interesting read, based on the complete reverse situation recently demonstrated in the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom. It would be interesting to see what Fialka would say about his brethren who were embedded, and how that may or may not have contributed to getting the best face on a story.
A quick read, and if you can cut through some of the "its not fair" dialogue, a good review of press operations during the first Gulf War.