'The Future of Violence', by Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum

The tools for cyber attacks and biological warfare are growing ever smaller and ever more accessible. Indeed, it is not unfeasible that each individual could have access to their "own personal weapons of mass destruction programme". As such, the authors of The Future of Violence argue, the threats no longer come from foreign armies approaching the shore. They could come from anywhere - even in the form of a miniature, spider-like drone sent into your shower to inject you with a virus.

This example is one of many marshalled to show how technology could transform the nature of violence to a point where "the distinction between war and non-war is less clear" and the role of governments in protecting their citizens is dramatically diminished.

Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, and Gabriella Blum, a professor of human rights law at Harvard Law School, argue that "each person needs to fear an exponentially higher number of people and entities than a year ago".

Shaking up those who breathed a sigh of relief after reading Steven Pinker's 2011 treatise on the history of violence, The Better Angels of Our Nature , they contest that it showed only "one side of the coin". Pinker claimed that technology, trade and globalisation have made us more averse to violence; Wittes and Blum say the majority may be more peaceful but technology means it now only takes one outlier to cause "infinitely greater damage than ever before".

Citing Hobbes, Locke and Weber, the authors offer an impressive analysis of how the state will need to change to counter these threats. Publishers are competing to put out increasingly dire warnings about the fast-changing threats from cyber attacks, but The Future of Violence is original and insightful in turning to political theory for answers. It makes a great companion to Marc Goodman's excellent Future Crimes - a deeper look at how some of these high-tech crimes are already being committed.

Privacy campaigners and the technology industry point to the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden as a sign of state over-reach. In fact, say Wittes and Blum, state power is falling behind that of individuals and companies. Adversaries do not have to target publicly owned facilities; they can attack through privately owned servers and cables. The victims often turn to cyber security companies such as Mandiant to clear up the mess. The book argues these private entities are therefore more central to the social contract, privileged and obligated by the security benefits they provide.

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Most of the ideas are for lawmakers. The authors advocate intermediary regulation - targeting the companies that own the cables that enable individual crime - rather than just trying to prosecute the criminals responsible. They propose changes to the system whereby software manufacturers are rarely liable for the holes in their work, much as carmakers used to escape charges for crashes even when they were caused by known manufacturing faults.

They also suggest that the law should not completely ban "hacking back", when a company targets the computer of a criminal who has attempted or committed a cyber attack. With diminished government protection, they say, the individuals and businesses have greater latitude to take matters into their own hands.

The Future of Violence concludes by swearing allegiance to the state. The authors believe that, despite its "flaws and decrepitude" in the face of new and ever-changing threats, a Leviathan, albeit one in chains, is still the best friend that a citizen has.

The writer is the FT's San Francisco correspondent

The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones - Confronting a New Age of Threat, by Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum, Basic Civitas, £11.75/$29.99

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