Annie Jacobsen Longlist Interview

How does it feel to be longlisted?

Pretty stunning. I write out of a mild form of compulsion, the idea that the story has to be told. When people respond by reading, that feels huge. When an organization like The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction takes note, that feels jaw-dropping. 

How did you conduct your research?

As with all my books, I locate and interview sources who are uniquely qualified to speak on the subject at hand, which in this case is nuclear war. I weave that together with declassified documents and government monographs, sourced from places like Los Alamos and the National Archives. And as I note in the book’s backmatter, I leaned into the stellar work of other journalists, authors, and academics who have come before me. A lot of people have worked for decades to inform the public about the existential dangers of nuclear war. 

How did the process of writing this book compare to your previous experiences as an investigative reporter?

Each of my previous books covers the modern history of U.S. national security. This means I’ve spent my career interviewing people involved in military and intelligence operations that have already happened. In this new book, I had to conceive a scenario that could happen in the future, based on reported facts about science and technology systems that are already in place. This challenge seemed daunting at first. Then I remembered a non-fiction book I’d read a decade earlier, by science writer Alan Weisman, entitled The World Without Us. Weisman elegantly reports what might happen to the natural and man-made environment we all share, were humans to suddenly and mysteriously disappear. We all learn from others; I certainly do. With that book in mind, I had a literary north-star for a different kind of reporting. 

Was there a particular fact that shocked you the most while conducting your research for this book?

When I began the process, I had concerns about how many top-tier national security officials—generals, admirals, presidential advisors, and others—would actually speak with me on the record. That so many of them spoke so candidly on the record still amazes me. Their warnings are a testament to the razor’s edge on which we all live. 

Tell us a bit more about the narrative structure of your book - why did you choose to capture the horror of nuclear war through a minute minute-by-minute lens?

During an interview with General Robert Kehler (ret.), former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, I asked what would happen in a full-scale nuclear exchange between America and Russia. His response was, “The world could end in the next couple of hours.” That took my breath away. The Stratcom Commander is responsible for all nuclear forces and all nuclear weapons in the United States; were the president to give a nuclear launch order, it goes directly to him (or her). In my conversation with General Kehler I realized that if deterrence fails and nuclear war happens, the apocalyptic destruction that follows will unfold in seconds and minutes, not days and weeks. Once I understood that, the ticking-clock narrative structure of Nuclear War: A Scenario became obvious.