Cryptic Concrete sets out to understand the inner workings of the Cold War state. In an attempt to grapple with the architecture, both material and ideological, that was designed to protect and take life in nuclear war, the book examines two complimentary types of structures - the nuclear bunker and the atomic missile silo. Ian Klinke, a noted expert on German geopolitics, makes the case that West German military strategists, engineers, civil defence planners and politicians were animated in the 1950s and 60s by the idea that geopolitics had to be fought in three-dimensional space, specifically in subterranea. Analyzing a broad range of sources through the lens of critical theory, the author reveals the ways in which the Cold War state reproduced and inverted the Third Reich?fs spaces of survival and extermination. In this way, Cryptic Concrete offers a vital reassessment of the history of geo- and bio-politics.