WAR -$120 BILLION- WAM : PRECIS

The market interest is robust : Venture capitalist funds deployed $120 billion of capital into  national security startups over the last three years.

Leading engineers are eager to work on problems that matter to preserve democracy in America and elsewhere.

The question now is whether we can achieve this transformation in time to deter the next great power war and prevail in the more contained conflicts that threaten to envelop the world.

'' This history of failure in a war can almost be summed in two words : '' Too late,'' : Douglas MacArthur declared hauntingly in 1940. Eighty-four years later, on the eve of tensions not unlike what preceded prior great power conflict, the world would too well to heed MacArthur's warning.

The World Students Society thanks Raj M. Shah, managing partner Shield Capital, and Christopher Kirchhoff helped build the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit.

They are the authors '' Unit X : How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War.''