Shadow World: A Book Review

By Mike Coldagelli

Chandler, Robert. Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, the Global New Left, and Radical Islam. Regnery Publishing Inc., 2008, 532 pages.

Author Robert Chandler is a strategist who has worked for the United States Air Force, the White House, the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, and Justice, and the Central Intelligence Agency. A retired Air Force colonel and Vietnam veteran, he holds a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University. He is the author of numerous articles and four previous books, and is a much sought-after speaker. (Inside cover)

The book attempts to show the reader the difference between what is seen and what is reality. Chandler identifies four competitors in the race for geopolitical dominance similar to Malachi Martin’s book, The Keys of this Blood, and gives an expose on identifying the competitors, their tactics, and their goals. Chandler cites an array of primary and secondary sources.

The revelations of the book identify the competing centers of gravity in relation to their opposition to the United States or the Capitalist West. Resurgent Russia includes such players as China, North Korea, Iran, and Latin America. The global New Left is made up of “networks of networks” and “constellations of constellations” of NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) or “civil society organizations.” Radical Islam is comprised of Salafist/Wahhabist ideology and fueled by Saudi money. While these three opponents of the West are not identical they do work in concert when it serves their goals which is world socialist governance or in the case of Radical Islam a world caliphate.

Chandler speaks extensively of two pivotal men in history. The first, Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), an Italian Communist, advocated societal revolution through nonviolent, persistent, “quiet” transformation. The major obstacles to transformation are the “Christian mind and Christian culture” and the nuclear family which transmits that “mind and culture.” Whereas Lenin saw victory through military might, aggression, and war; Gramsci saw deception, infiltration, and co-option. Gramsci wanted to “Marxize the inner man.”

The second, Samuel Rubin (1901-1978), was born in Bialystok, Poland, then a part of Czarist Russia. His parents migrated to Brooklyn, New York when Samuel was four. Rubin was active in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930’s. By means of war-profiteering Rubin acquired a large stock of ambergris, a key raw ingredient in perfumes. He eventually established “A. C. Faberge” and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. His fortune went to establish the Institute for Policy Studies and the Samuel Rubin Foundation. The Institute for Policy Studies eventually became the shining star in a constellation of NGO’s employing Gramsci’s formula for cultural transformation.

Chandler introduces the reader to the Soviet Union’s Andropov Plan, a long-range, global deception strategy. First revealed by KGB Major Anatoliy Golitsyn who defected to the West in 1961, the Andropov Plan took the Russian quest for hegemony underground. The plan was implemented by Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet Union was dissolved on December 31, 1991. Through glasnost and perestroika began the deception, infiltration, and co-option prescribed by Gramsci. Chandler predicts the re-emergence of a confident, chauvinistic Russian nationalism and its attendant consequences.

The reader will come away from the book with a better understanding of the non-governmental organization. Chandler provides a laundry list of NGO’s both domestic and international. NGO’s, according to Chandler, have co-opted the UN and work to circumvent national borders and weaken national sovereignty. These organizations seek to educate, but that education equals propaganda in that it seeks to influence attitudes and ultimately control actions. NGO’s shape cultural thinking by creating issues, conflicts, and controversy. An example is the Cloward-Piven strategy which “seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.”

Finally, Chandler explores the Gramscian techniques of radical Islam. He quotes Michael Barone who flatly states, “the Saudis are our enemies.” The Islamists use our concept of “multiculturalism” against us. Ex-Muslim Abdul Kasem calls it “Kafir multiculturalism.” (Kafir is the Islamic term for non-Muslim) Indeed the idea of multiculturalism does not exist for Muslims. But the radical Muslims fight with a two edged sword. War is the sharp edge and immigration as cultural infiltration the other. The ideology and the money to propel it flow out of Saudi Arabia.

Chandler writes from a secular point of view. He is not a Christian apologist. So why is this book of any profit to believing Christians? If read in the light of Psalm 2 the book becomes illuminating. The first three verses of Psalm 2 speak of nations, peoples, kings and rulers taking a stand against the LORD and his Anointed One. To take this stand against the LORD and his Christ, nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain to break the chains and throw off the fetters of the LORD and his Christ. The plotting and conspiring is what occurs in the shadows. An excerpt from page 38 is as follows:

“Gramsci’s blueprint for action, Martin (Malachi Martin) explained, called for a stealthy attack on Christianity, one that ‘…had to be pursued by means of quiet and anonymous revolution… everything must be done in the name of man’s dignity and rights, and in the name of autonomy and freedom from outside constraint. From the claims and constraints of Christianity, above all.’”

Martin uses the word “constraints.” Autonomy, freedom from outside constraint, is the goal. The first three verses of Psalm 2 speak of “chains and fetters” (NIV), “bonds and cords” (ESV), and “fetters and cords” (NASB). “Constraints” serve to impose limits, restrictions, and prohibitions. Likewise “chains,” “fetters,” “bonds,” and “cords.” The goal of the nations, peoples, kings, and rulers of Psalm 2 is also freedom and autonomy from the constraints of God because they want to “break the chains” and “throw off the fetters.”

Psalm 2 also speaks of a “gathering together.” Chandler documents this world unification impulse that drives the efforts in the shadows. The words “world,” “global,” “earth,” “peace,” and “united” abound in NGO titles. The objectives of resurgent Russia, the global New Left, and radical Islam are world governance, and though their visions are not identical, the obstacle to their objectives is.

Shadow World is a timely book that illuminates current American domestic and international trends by exposing the forces at work in the shadows. It reflects Chandler’s extensive experience in intelligence and knowledge of politics. Its broad scope connects the proverbial “dots” and provides a backdrop for an informed reading of Psalm 2.