When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Those crazy folks over at Wondery have a podcast called American History Tellers, which you can find and subscribe to here. In this teaser, you can get a preview of what AHT has coming - namely, a six part series examining the American Revolution from several different perspectives. For an exploration of this pivotal event in world history which you won't get anywhere else, make sure you check out...

Apologies for the birdsongs in advance...  We've got a real treat for you in the latest episode of the Korean War guys, as niche diplomacy and underrated tales become our prime focus. Here we examine the tales of Turkey and New Zealand, and their journey towards intervention in the Korean War... Episode 27: Avengers Assemble tackles two fascinating case studies in the allied intervention in t...

Our series on 17th century warfare continues with a look at how French armies were constituted, and how their attitudes towards certain tactics changed. We begin with an examination of the massive increases of European armies across the board, but we soon refine our focus, and examine the machinations of King Henry IV of France (r. 1594-1610), who made the most of new theories in infantry and cava...

Within this episode we continue to surge ahead with our narrative of the Korean War through the lens of that body. We look at how it coped with the progress of the North Koreans throughout the summer, and how its members were eventually persuaded to pass a few important resolutions, and to send armed delegations of their own. In this episode, we see collective security come to life, and it is a fa...

Paul Kendrick's Korean War Podcast This is in some sense a two-pronged episode, where we look first of all at the days between 27-30 June 1950, and explain how the Truman administration managed to manipulate the strategic situation on the Han River to its own ends. Then, once we bring our story up to 30 June, we deliver a kind of overview, where we examine the conflict between late June and Septem...

UNprecedented - get it, because UN = United Nations, and it's unprecedented because it's never happened before?! I'm a genius!  Episode 24: UNprecedented looks at the role of the United Nations, which the US used, for a variety of reasons, to frame its intervention in Korea. Here we look at the key moments in the history of UN, and we chart its development over the late 1940s as it became mor...

The Korean War is back with a bang! Episode 23: What Lies Beneath takes us to the halls of Washington, where as we saw in the last episode, the US was surprisingly slow to respond to the North Korean invasion. What kind of methods did the Truman administration make use of to achieve its policy goals? In this episode we will examine what lay beneath the shocked exterior of the American reaction to...

In our latest episode of 17th Century Warfare, we put the Military Revolution to the test, by applying a key aspect of it - the trace italienne system - to 17th century France! Expect talk of fortresses, historian John A Lynn and lots of talk about context.... So...get ready to lay siege! In this episode we use the case study of French fortifications to examine the trace italienne, the name given...

Time to get a bit technical, but I promise it'll be anything BUT boring! Get your thinking caps on history friends, because in this episode we’re going to assess the most important element of the historiography of the 17th century – the Military Revolution theory. The Military Revolution idea states that Europe underwent fundamental – you might even say ‘revolutionary’ changes during the late 1500...

In my time my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot, as to learn me any other thing; and so I think other men did their children: he taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw from strength of the body: I had my bows bought me, according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger; for men shall never shoot well, excep...

{ Don't panic! The Korean War is on a break, and will be back on 18th June } At long last! Our series on 17th century warfare has finally landed, with our first episode looking at…nothing to do with 17th century warfare…Hmmm. Not to worry history friends – untangling warfare in the 17th century requires a certain amount of background detail, and in this episode here we do exactly that. The feudal...

'This is a fight between God or the Devil. If his Majesty wants to side with God, he must join me. If he prefers to side with the Devil, then indeed he must fight me. There is no third way" Gustavus Adolphus may give us our podcast's theme, and our book's title, but there was much more to the Thirty Years War than the famed King of Sweden. In this introduction episode, we place you in the thick of...

1618-2018 - on this day 400 years ago, one of the most destructive conflicts in human history erupted within the walls of Prague's Hradschin Castle. As we recount here, the conflict was neither all the fault of the Bohemians, nor sustained by them for very long. Instead, several factors prolonged the conflict and kept Europe in rapture for three decades. For the next year or so, we here at WDF wan...

Back again with the second part of our TALK episode, which concludes the analysis of the Thirty Years War timeline in the typical style which only a TALK episode can manage! Here we take the story from 1635 and discuss several battles, characters and important diplomatic developments before concluding on the Peace of Westphalia. Hopefully this will get you pumped for all the content that is to com...

Happy birthday to us! When Diplomacy Fails is 6 years old today, and to celebrate we're jumping right into the Thirty Years War once again, with another intro episode (2/5) this one looking at the timeline of the conflict up to the year 1635, but with a twist. I'm not by myself this time - today I am joined by TALK episode guest Sean. Far too much happens to really summarise here, but as usual, sk...

We're jumping back into the Thirty Years War and this is all super exciting, but to some of you guys it may also be a tad overwhelming, as a lot of unfamiliar stuff is about to be thrown at you. With that in mind, this episode is designed to familiarise you with the main themes, the most important figures, and the most active powers in Europe at the time. We'll learn a bit about the constitution o...

You should know about our new sponsor - onlinegreatbooks.com! To access some fascinating books, nerd out with like minded enthusiasts, further your knowledge of some classical works, get 25% off your first three months AND help the show, head on over to...  https://intellectuallinearprogression.com/when-diplomacy-fails/?level=1&discount_code=dip   Episode 22: Crossing the Rubicon loo...

Make sure you check out the Human Circus - Journeys in the Medieval World, if you're a fan of fascinating stories and a well told narratives. Devon is a history friend and a proud member of the History Podcasting Platform, so show him some love and check his brilliant pod out! https://humancircuspodcast.com/ You can also subscribe to his show on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/human-ci...

Make sure to give a warm welcome to our featured history podcast through the History Podcasting Platform: Noah Tetzner, and his History of Vikings Podcast. You can find Noah's excellent podcast here: http://thehistoryofvikings.com/author/noahtetzner/  Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-vikings/id1363609926  Episode 20: Korean Background Part 3 conclud...

There's an awful lot to get into here, but we have to start somewhere! In this episode, I explain why my plans have effectively gone up in smoke, and what I plan to do to rectify these new developments. Expect announcements on the future of Poland Is Not Yet Lost, 1956, the Korean War, the Age of Bismarck, the Versailles Anniversary Project, and a new body of work that I will be springing on you g...

Episode 19: Korean Background Part 2 picks up where we left off last time with an examination of Syngman Rhee, by examining his counterpart up North. Who was Kim Il-sung, and where did he come from to assume a position of unrivalled power in Pyongyang by 1950? Was this rise all by accident, or exclusively by Soviet design, and what was it that recommended Kim to Stalin in the first place? All of t...

NEW: Subscribe to WDF's newsletter for a weekly update on the latest in WDF, exclusive deals, stories, quizzes, perspectives and so much more that you won't get anywhere else. Cut through the cr@p and AXXESS the history with our weekly telegram service. Simply click on the link provided and add your email, and WALLAH! Link: https://mailchi.mp/a0d49eec863c/wdfpodcast Episode 18: Korean Background P...

NEW: Subscribe to WDF's newsletter for a weekly update on the latest in WDF, exclusive deals, stories, quizzes, perspectives and so much more that you won't get anywhere else. Cut through the cr@p and AXXESS the history with our weekly telegram service. Simply click on the link provided and add your email, and WALLAH! Link: https://mailchi.mp/a0d49eec863c/wdfpodcast Episode 17: The Balancing Act c...

Episode 16: Selective Perspective examines further the American policy towards South Korea in late spring 1950. We open the episode with the arrival of America's ambassador to South Korea John J Muccio (pictured) returning home, to plead in person for the things that Seoul desperately needed. While Muccio did this, the Truman administration set about crafting a perfectly coordinated image of its a...

Episode 15: Ignorance Is Bliss examines the behaviour of the US towards its South Korean ally. Since the American strategy was now to lure North Korea into attacking, we'll see in this episode exactly how determined the Truman administration was to chronically underfund and jeopardise the security of Seoul. Ignoring the protests, concerns and urgency professed even by some of its own State Departm...