School of War

Beatrice Heuser, Distinguished Professor at the Brussels School of Governance in the Free University of Brussels and author of Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions, joins the show to discuss decision-making and strategic thinking. ▪️ Times 02:58 Economists and strategy 07:59 Acting rationally vs logically 15:00 Mirror imaging  20:01 How should we study strategy? 27:17 Denial 32:18...

Geoff Ball, U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer, staff director for the Naval Academy’s Leadership Education and Development Division and Executive Editor of The Connecting File, joins the show to discuss the radical changes and surprising continuities in how America’s grunts will fight. ▪️ Times 02:25 The Connecting File 06:22 How is the infantry doing? 14:10 Companies of the future 23:22 Informat...

David Shedd, former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and author of The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets, joins the show to discuss Chinese spy craft. ▪️ Times 02:05 Early days 06:49 CIA 09:28 Sandinistas and revolutionaries  15:14 IC preparation  18:35 A great awakening 26:11 Industrial espionage  30:50 National Intelligence Estimate 34:11 The MSS 44:...

Walter Russell Mead, Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida's Hamilton Center and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, joins the show to discuss foreign policy in the Age of Trump. ▪️ Times 03:15 An extraordinary week 05:06 The Transatlantic relationship 09:02 Turning to China  16:10 Greenland 27:03 Post-presidency Trump 32:25 Harder now 43:08 Zelens...

Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department and Harold Brown Chair at CSIS, joins the show to talk about how America has resurrected its defense industrial base in the past and why it should be doing so now. ▪️ Times 02:55 The British in the 1930s 05:58 Roosevelt’s decision 09:48 Re-orientation  13:59 The B-29 16:00 Victory in Iraq  27:54 Skunkworks 31:30 Xi comes into power 35:07...

Michael Lurie, CEO and President of Rafael USA, joins the show to explain how High Energy Lasers and Iron Beam will change missile & air defense, not to mention warfare itself, forever. ▪️ Times 02:34 The evolution of missile defense 05:09 Iron Dome & Iron Beam 08:04 How do lasers work? 15:16 Limitations 20:07 Integrating systems  25:28 Future applications  30:09 Lessons from field testing 40:15 A...

Blake Seitz, Content Strategist at Palantir Technologies, and Mike Watson, Executive Director at The Alexander Hamilton Society, join the show to discuss America’s relationship with the world at the time of the Founding Fathers. ▪️ Times 02:45 18th Century geopolitical landscape 06:25 Yorktown 11:17 Diplomacy of the Founders  16:23 Bold rhetoric  19:37 Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists 25:45 Washin...

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of FDD, joins the show to bring us up to speed on widespread Iranian protests, the chances of American or Israeli intervention, and what intervention might achieve. ▪️ Times 02:15 Will we strike? 05:34 New Iran talks? 07:03 Nuclear concessions?  10:35 Intervention possibilities 15:10 The Shah’s son and the Islamic regime 24:28 How do these protests compare to the past? 34:29 Pub...

Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at FDD and retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, joins the show to discuss Venezuela’s shadow fleet, the cyber component of the Maduro raid, and the future of the U.S. Navy. ▪️ Times 03:04 Shadow Fleets 06:06 Ship Hunting  10:07 Coast Guard  12:35 Leverage and Sanctions 18:37 Planning the Maduro Raid 24:57 How We Use Cyber...

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran from 2019 to 2021, joins the show to discuss Venezuela and what might happen next. ▪️ Times 02:04 Snatch and Grab 05:50 Intelligence Operations 12:04 Oil 16:50 Holding the Country Together  24:16 Risks & Mistakes 30:48 Blockade 33:54 Hard To Leave    3...

Mark Jones Jr., chief pilot of experimental flight test with the Honda Aircraft Company and recently retired U.S. Air Force test pilot and special operations commander, joins the show to talk about the nature of special air operations and the extraordinary air raid that kicked off Desert Storm. ▪️ Times 02:45 9/11  05:58 Test Pilot  11:52 Special Air Operations 17:54 Two Vastly Different Experienc...

Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Director (Iran Program) and Senior Fellow at FDD, joins the show to talk about how Iran has worked to reconstitute its missile program since the summer, and what the U.S. and Israel might do to stop it. ▪️ Times 01:43 Vessel Seizure  05:45 Making a Ballistic Missile  13:06 What Modern War Looks Like 17:19 Iran’s Missile Program 21:42 Evolving Assessment 26:24 Relevance f...

Kevin Passmore, professor of History at Cardiff University and author of The Maginot Line: A New History, joins the show to talk about the most elaborate fortification system of the 20th century and why it failed. ▪️ Times 02:03 Attacking the Maginot Line 05:53 Fortifications and Warfare 11:48 Flexibility vs Depth 15:38 A Total Commitment to War 19:49 French Defensive Concepts 22:42 Living in the...

Christian Brose, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, joins the show to talk about American industry and the future of war. ▪️ Times 02:26 Erosion of Military Advantage 11:11 The Nature of the Problem 16:42 Consensus and Urgency 21:01 Learning the Right Lessons in Ukraine 25:32 Scaling Up for...

Eric Cline, professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and of Anthropology at The George Washington University and author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, joins the show to break down the collapse of the Bronze Age civilization and why it matters today. ▪️ Times 02:57 Writing History for All 04:51 The Three Age System 10:32 Tin: The Oil of the Ancient World 11:37 Archeol...

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran from 2019 to 2021, joins the show to discuss events in the Caribbean. ▪️ Times 01:56 Venezuela Through Multiple Administrations  06:05 Maduro 11:53 Trump to Biden 17:56 U.S. Military Capabilities  24:05 Political Justifications  30:11 The Venezuelan Op...

Nadia Schadlow, former Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy and senior fellow at Hudson Institute, joins the show to breakdown what strategic depth is and why the concept remains relevant. ▪️ Times 02:37 Unhinged, Frenetic Times 03:36 What is Strategic Depth? 07:50 A Lack of Space 12:50 Territory and War 14:55 How to Increase Time 23:18 Allies and Forward De...

Roya Hakakian, author of Assassins of the Turquoise Palace and Journey from the Land of No, joins the show to discuss the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, and how these events have shaped the world. ▪️ Times 02:56 Life Before the Revolution 11:02 Antisemitism in Revolutionary Iran 21:56 Khomeini’s Rise to Power 22:32 The Global Left and the Soviet Union 29:49 A Cata...

Frank Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and author of Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, joins the show to discuss the promise and perils of using history to guide today’s statecraft. ▪️ Times 02:20 Political Science vs. History 05:37 The Importance of Historical...

Michael Pack, President and CEO of Palladium Pictures LLC and director of The Last 600 Meters: The Battles of Najaf and Fallujah, joins the show to discuss his remarkable documentary of the Iraq war and the Marines and battles that it portrays. ▪️ Times 01:59 The Journey of Creating 'The Last 600 Meters' 06:24 Censored 10:55 Combat and Valor  21:06 Political Decisions and Military Strategy  26:02...

Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One,  joins the show to discuss how the British Empire maintained the balance in Europe between the fall of Napoleon to the summer of 1914. ▪️ Times 02:59 Studying the Problem of War 06:20 British Perspectives of th...

John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,  joins the show to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, and what it all means facing China in the Pacific. ▪️ Times 01:56 Strategic Implications of the War 03:24 The 28-Point Peace Plan 09:49 Challenges of Negotiating Peace 15:19 The Russia-China Connection 19:48 Nuclear Deterrence and Arms Control 29:30...

Jeremy Armstrong, Professor of Classics & Ancient History at the University of Auckland and author of Children of Mars: The Origins of Rome's Empire,  joins the show to discuss the early history of Rome, the role of family and clan in the structure of its military, the transition from monarchy to republic, and the nature of warfare during this formative period.  ▪️ Times 02:28 The Problems of Earl...

Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina substack, joins the show to discuss the current state of the Ukraine war. We cover tactical innovations, the challenges of operations and strategy, the structure of the Ukrainian military, the political landscape under Zelensky, and the industrial capabilities...

Marc Milner, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick and author of Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign, joins the show to discuss the turbulent passing of the torch of Western hegemony during WWII.  ▪️ Times 02:50 1917 10:52 American Battle Monuments Commission 14:31 FDR and the British Empire 21:36 American views on the Nazis...