Strategy Matters

This episode of Strategy Matters focuses on the regional dynamic between Iran and Iraq and supports the case study on America and the Greater Middle in the Strategy and Policy Course. Host Dr. Vanya Eftimova Bellinger discusses this consequential relationship between the two neighboring countries with historian Dr. Samuel Helfont and political scientist Dr. Shanin Berenji. The episode begins with...

In this episode of Strategy Matters , we explore Henry Kissinger’s impact on the Late Cold War, focusing on how his background and scholarly interests shaped his emphasis on balance-of-power politics, strategic stability, and the alignment of strategy with capabilities. Host Brendan Neagle is joined by two professors at the United States Naval War College: Dr. Richard Moss and Dr. Marc Genest. The...

In this episode of Strategy Matters , we explore whether US media coverage influenced the course of the US involvement in Vietnam. Host Vanya Eftimova Bellinger is joined by the historians Dr. Nicholas Evan Sarantakes and Dr. Cavender Sutton. The discussion reveals that, contrary to later perceptions, the Saigon Press Corps largely supported the war. The animosity between the military and media ca...

This episode of Strategy Matters focuses on Chiang Kai-shek, the often-overshadowed rival of Mao Zedong, to assess his leadership, ideology, and strategic legacy. Host Brendan Neagle is joined by historians and Strategy and Policy Professors Ken Swope and Anatol Klass. The discussion provides a broad spectrum of factors that affected Chiang’s strategic decision making and effectiveness as a leader...

In this episode of Strategy Matters, we explore the legacy of the forgotten World War II propaganda hero, Sefton Delmer, to uncover best practices for shaping the information domain. Vanya Eftimova Bellinger talks with the Ukrainian-born British journalist Peter Pomerantsev, the author of How to Win the Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler. In the episode, Pomerantsev disavows co...

This episode of Strategy Matters aligns with the Interwar Case 5 of the Strategy and Policy Course: The Interwar World. Co-host Brendan Neagle interviews Trent Hone, the author of Learning War and Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific . The interview focuses on U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps adaptation in the interwar period between World War I and Wor...

In this episode of Strategy Matters, we explore the strategic logic behind the formation of NATO in the aftermath of World War II. The discussion examines the post-World War world from Western and Soviet perspectives and highlights how economic challenges, political instability, and ideological competition shaped early Cold War security decisions. Guests Dr. David Stone and Dr. Timothy Hoyt emphas...

Episode ten of Strategy Matters aligns with the fourth case study in the Strategy and Policy Course at the Naval War at the U.S. Naval War College. Much of the case study focuses on the European theaters of World War I, but in the podcast, we are exploring the extra-European or colonial theaters of the conflict. Although distinct, they were seldom decisive. Nonetheless, the colonial theaters in WW...

Episode Nine of  Strategy Matters  aligns with the third case study in the Strategy and Policy Course at the Naval War at the U.S. Naval War College. In this episode, we shift our focus on the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to explore how the military and political upheavals of 1793–1815 shaped strategic thinking in the early American republic. Although the United States staye...

This is a special episode of the Strategy Matters Podcast. Host Brendan Neagle talks with historian Dr. John Ferling to explore the strategic lessons of the American Revolution. This special episode reaches back to provide additional perspective on the third Strategy and War case study at the U.S. Naval War College. Although the timing of this episode does not align directly with the American Revo...

In episode seven, Admiral (ret.) Lars Saunes and Dr. Michelle Paranzino discuss how the outcome of the Second World War shaped the politics and security in Europe. This episode complements the Second World War case study within the  Strategy and War  course. It also addresses one of the primary themes in the study of war: the strategic implications of military operations. The United Stat...

In Episode 6, Dr. Burak Kadercan and Dr. Jesse Tumblin explore the current case study in Strategy and War Course, World War I, from a different angle: the strategic challenges the Ottoman Empire faced. At its height, the Ottoman Empire ruled on three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. However, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it lost much of its European domains and struggled to...

Episode five features Dr. David Stone and Dr. Kenneth Swope from the U.S. Naval War College, who examine how two pivotal conflicts between 1894 and 1905 reshaped China’s place in East Asia. This episode compliments the Russo-Japanese War case study within the Strategy and War Course. While examining the period between the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905),...

Guests Katrina Ponti and Jonathan Romaneski join host Brendan Neagle to unpack the historical significance and strategic effects of operations at Fort Ticonderoga during the American War of Independence.  The discussion complements the course materials for American War of Independence case study in the Strategy and War Course at the U.S. Naval War College. The guests explore how the fort...

Guests Michael Pavković and Josh Hammond join host Vanya Eftimova Bellinger to profile the strategic leadership of two of the most compelling figures of the Peloponnesian War: Demosthenes and Brasidas. They compare Brasidas’s formative experiences in Sparta with Demosthenes’s in Athens, exploring how these backgrounds shaped each man’s approach to strategic leadership. The discussion highlights ke...

Guests John Maurer and James Holmes join host Vanya Eftimova Bellinger to discuss the influence of Alfred Thayer Mahan’s theories on the strategic environment of the twentieth century and beyond. The guests definitively settle the question of how to pronounce Mahan’s name correctly before diving into how various strategic leaders applied, or misapplied, Mahan’s theories to the formulation of marit...

Guests  Vanya Bellinger  and  Andrew "Dex" Wilson  join host Brendan Neagle to compare and contrast the foundational theorists of war: Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. Guests: Andrew R. Wilson  is the John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies. Professor Wilson has lectured at military colleges and civilian universities across the United States and around the world. The autho...