Facing Coming Storms: Talking International Defence

What does the rapidly evolving face of modern warfare mean for the future of global conflict and Western military strategy? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we sit down to discuss the global face of land warfare with Ruben Stewart, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Ruben shares his unique journey from serving as a New Zealand infant...

In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we talk varying multinational approaches military ethics with CHACR director Major General Andrew Sharpe, Colonel Dennis Katolin of the US Marine Corps, Colonel Matthias Strohn of the German Army Reserve (also head of historical analysis at CHACR) and Michelle Richards, former British army officer and CEO of Leadership Alchemy. What You’ll Discover - Armies...

We're recording this from Tampa ahead of Special Operations Forces Week, and it felt like the perfect moment to dig into a world that operates mostly in the shadows but plays a huge role in how modern conflict and defence actually works. In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we sat down with Leo Blanken, associate professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School and former New Zealand soldier now...

Host Peter Apps is joined by US Naval War College Professor Nikolas Gvosdev and CHACR director Major General Andrew Sharpe to unpack “Operation Epic Fury” and what it tells us about modern warfare. What starts as a discussion about Iran quickly turns into something much bigger. This is about how wars actually unfold today, why they rarely go to plan, and why the systems we’ve relied on for decades...

In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we are talking to NATO expert Sten Rynning, Professor of War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark and Eva Sula, a former Estonian government official turned defence industry adviser also as a mentor for NATO tech innovation hub DIANA. Following the fallout of January's Greenland row, we are looking at the complex role of the US – now watched uneasi...

In our first episode of 2026, we couldn’t have asked for a stronger panel – three experts who’ve spent their careers wrestling with the grey-zone threats reshaping global security. In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, I bring together Major General Andrew Sharpe (Director of CHACR), Colonel Mietta Groeneveld (Director of the NATO Command & Control Centre of Excellence), and Professor Nikol...

What do war films really teach us - not just about conflict, but about who we think we are, and what we believe we’d do when it matters? In this Christmas episode of  Facing Coming Storms , we step slightly sideways from our usual focus on geopolitics and defence technology to explore  war movies and popular culture  and what they reveal about society’s relationship with conflict. W...

What happens when the speed of modern warfare outpaces the systems designed to manage it? In this episode of  Facing Coming Storms , we are joined by  Eva Sula , Estonian defence advisor and mentor at NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator (DIANA), and  Robert Fetters , former U.S. Army paratrooper and special operations officer now working in defence technology. Together, we explore...

From volunteering in March 2022 to whispering in the ear of Ukraine’s High Command and authoring the paper that birthed an entirely new branch of the military, Ukrainian-born Canadian national Illya Sekirin has been at the heart of Ukraine's drone revolution rewriting the rules of warfare. We explore the thinking that led President Zelenskyy to create the Unmanned Systems Forces as Ukraine’s fourt...

What happens when the West stops writing the rules and every middle power starts playing its own game at the same time? Peter Apps reunites with Samir Puri, Director of the Centre for Global Governance and Security at Chatham House. From Trump’s transactional peace pushes to China’s mineral land-grab and the growing power of emerging middle powers, they map a world where old empires fade and new o...

We talk with neurologist Dr Nicholas Wright – adviser to the Pentagon Joint Staff and US nuclear strategists amongst others on the functioning of the brain – about his new book "Warhead", which dissects modern conflict and military history from the perspective of spent their career studying how our brain structure, cognitive biases, stress, and human decision-making will shape and potentially dera...

As winter grips Ukraine's frontlines and Chinese warships circle Taiwan, the shadows of escalation stretch across two hemispheres, testing alliances and resolve. In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps convenes experts from the Institute for the Study of War - George Barros (Russia & GEOINT Team Lead) on Moscow's grinding push toward Pokrovsk, Matthew Sperzel and Daniel Shats (Chin...

What if the UK's defence future hinges not on its own capabilities, but on bridging gaps in an unpredictable US partnership? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps speaks with Matthew Savill, Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), about his two decades in the MOD - from Iraq intelligence to Ukraine support and the evolving US-UK relationship amid...

What if the real frontline of modern conflict isn’t on the battlefield, but in the minds and screens of everyday people? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps is joined by Simon Paterson, former British Army Intelligence officer and head of strategic partnerships at Boon Global, and Margot Fulde-Hardy, investigator at Graphika and ex-French government official. Together, they unpack...

Power without a plan: what happens when the world’s strongest military hits pause? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Pete Apps sits down with Nikolas Gvosdev, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Professor of National Security Studies at the U.S. Naval War College, to unpack the geopolitical and strategic turbulence surrounding the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. Fro...

As the balance shifts beneath our feet, new maps are drawn - not on paper, but in power itself. In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps is joined by Dr Peter Layton, retired Royal Australian Air Force officer and visiting fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, to unpack how changing power dynamics are reshaping security in the Indo-Pacific. From China’s rapid military expansion and the...

What happens when an army built for the past must face an uncertain future? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps sits down with Ben Barry - Senior Fellow for Defence and Military Analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and author of The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025 for a sweeping conversation charting five turbulent decades of British military h...

What if the wars of the future look nothing like the wars of the past? In this live edition of Facing Coming Storms, recorded at the Hereford Military History Festival, Pete Apps is joined by two leading voices on conflict: Sir Antony Beevor, Britain’s most acclaimed military historian, and Patrick Bury, former Royal Irish Regiment officer and security lecturer at the University of Bath. Together,...

What if the next great naval revolution was already underway? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps speaks with Admiral Nils Wang - former head of the Danish Navy and Danish Defence College, now senior naval advisor and defence industry board member about the future of maritime warfare in an era defined by drones, AI, and hybrid threats. Together, they explore how unmanned systems ar...

What if NATO's biggest threat wasn't Russia but America's retreat? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we welcome back Sten Rynning, Professor of War Studies at the Danish Institute for Advanced Studies and lecturer at the NATO Defence College. Author of NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, Sten returns to unpack the turbulence shaking the alliance as the Trump administration redefines transatlant...

The war in Ukraine is not just a regional conflict – it is a testing ground for the future of warfare and a frontline in the wider confrontation between authoritarian regimes and the West. In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps is joined by Bob Seely, former Member of Parliament, reservist and author of The New Total War. Drawing on his unique background and f...

What if cutting-edge technology could redefine global defence strategies? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps is joined by James Black, Deputy Director at RAND Europe and an expert in strategic competition and emerging technologies. Together, they explore the transformative power of defence technology, its profound implications for global security and industry, and key lessons from...

What if understanding limited nuclear war could prevent global catastrophe? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we explore the chilling realities of nuclear risks and war planning with Bob Manning, Senior Research Fellow for Strategic Deterrence at the Heritage Foundation and a veteran of nearly 20 years in the US Department of Defence, and Leo Keay, a PhD candidate and parliamentary research...

What if peering into one leader's mind could shape the future of global defence? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, Peter Apps explores the psyche of Chinese President Xi Jinping with Michael Sheridan, a veteran foreign correspondent and author of The Red Emperor. Michael, who first reported for Reuters in 1980, shares insights from Xi's revolutionary roots to his iron grip on power, explori...

What’s shaping the Middle East’s evolving landscape? In this episode of Facing Coming Storms, we’re joined by Hayat Alvi, Ph. D., a professor at the US Naval War College, to explore the factors driving change in the region. We discuss how Iran’s regional strategies are adapting to new challenges and what their measured responses might indicate, drawing on Hayat’s expertise in international relatio...