The Wires of War

​The Wires of War: Technology And The Global Struggle For Power. 
Jacob Helberg. 
Avid Reader Press. 2021. ISBN: 9781982144432.
 
The Wires of War is a non‑fiction book on how digital infrastructure and information systems have become the main battleground between democracies and techno‑authoritarian regimes such as China and Russia. Helberg argues we are in a ongoing grey war, fought not with tanks but through cyber operations, disinformation, and control of physical network infrastructure like fibre‑optic cables, satellites, and 5G. He distinguishes a front‑end battle over what we see on screens (news feeds, social media, information operations) from a back‑end battle over hardware and critical infrastructure that underpins the internet and modern economies. The stakes, in his view, include national sovereignty, economic power, and the resilience of democratic institutions against manipulation by autocracies.
 
The book is often described as a warning that Western governments and tech companies must coordinate more closely to defend against techno‑authoritarian influence and coercion.
 
Jacob Helberg is an American-French technology policy expert, author of The Wires of War, and currently the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment in President Trump’s second administration. Helberg holds a BA from George Washington University and an MS in cybersecurity from NYU (2020). Helberg led Google’s global efforts against disinformation and foreign interference from 2016–2020. He later became a senior advisor to Palantir CEO Alex Karp and founded the Hill and Valley Forum to connect Silicon Valley with Capitol Hill on defence tech issues. In December 2025, he launched Pax Silica, a major State Department initiative on AI and supply chain security signed by nine countries including Singapore. Advocated for the 2024 TikTok ban/sale legislation as a U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission member.