Kaos Theory Episode 5: Robert Spalding

Welcome to KAOS THEORY — a new podcast series that Grant Williams and I are collaborating on that focuses on the intersection of Macroeconomics and Geopolitics in an increasingly disorderly world.

2/4/24: Episode 5 — Robert Spalding

Robert Spalding is a retired Brigadier General of the United States Air Force. He has previously served as Senior Advisor on China to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Defense Attaché to China, and Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council under the Trump Administration​​. General Spalding is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute with a focus on U.S.-China relations and is also CEO of SEMPRE (Secure EMP-Resistant Edge).

In 1999, two PLA generals wrote a treatise entitled Unrestricted Warfare which has essentially served as the CCP’s playbook for taking on the United States across multiple dimensions over the last several decades. In his 2021 book War Without Rules, General Spalding provides a bone-chilling dissection of the CCP’s methods and provides a comprehensive critique of some of the deficiencies in how the United States has dealt with these threats.

We discuss all of these topics in the context of today’s climate of increasing Geopolitical Conflicts around the globe and focus in particular on the role of Information Warfare — the “I” in the DIME Framework that we have discussed with previous KAOS THEORY guests.