A Better Peace: The War Room Podcast

Bernard Fall is considered by many to be one of the finest analysts and writers of the Vietnam War. Much of his insight about counterinsurgency warfare in Indochina was informed by the formative experiences earlier in his life. A Better Peace welcomes Nate Moir to discuss his book, "Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare", which analyses Fall's life to understand what drove his thinking and understanding of the situation. He joins host John Nagl to explain how Fall was consistently ahead of the conventional wisdom. Fall's penetrating assessments of the war brought some rebukes and even monitoring by the FBI, but in hindsight were proved to be sadly prescient and are an outstanding example of critical thought.

Sixty-six years ago, the Soviet Union placed Sputnik in orbit around the Earth and it changed everything. Since then, more than 80 nations and 100 commercial entities have also found their way into space. Yet much of the public is not aware of the extent to which hardly any event, transaction, or communication occurs that doesn't rely on some aspect of technology developed for or residing in space. A Better Peace welcomes General James Dickinson, Commander, U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM), to the virtual studio to share his strategic vision for the execution and integration of military spacepower into global joint all-domain operations. General Dickinson joins Ben Ogden to explain how SPACECOM "will ensure there is never a day without space."

It’s time for another episode of On Writing. A Better Peace welcomes William Inboden to the studio to discuss his book, "The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink." Will sits down with host Michael Neiberg for a conversation about capturing the efforts and accomplishments of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and his administration as they confronted the Soviets, reduced the nuclear threat and won the Cold War. The discussion examines how Will moved past his preconceived notions to present an unbiased and accurate account of the actions and interactions of the Reagan national security team in the 1980s.

The final episode of our three-part series on Afghanistan looks at rebuilding trust in the civil-military relationship. Twenty years of warfare presented a number of civil-military interactions, some positive and some detrimental, but the eventual collapse of Kabul after hearing time and again from the military that “this will be the year” we turn the corner, emptied the trust reservoir. Guest host and U.S. Army War College Fellow, LTC Ranjini Danaraj, is joined by LTG (retired) Doug Lute, the former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Deputy National Security Advisor on Iraq, Afghanistan, and South Asia under both Presidents Bush and Obama, and Dr. Carrie Lee, the Co-Director of the Civil-Military Relations Center and Chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College. They have a thoughtful discussion on Afghanistan’s impact on civil-military relations. Their conversation reveals the vital aspects of a civil-military relationship, how politics are fundamental to the conversation, how to better integrate other elements of national power and the need to balance expertise with humility.

The first episode of our three-part series on Afghanistan lessons discussed building armies. This episode focuses exclusively on assessing them. In the studio for this second episode are LTG (R) Eric Wesley, who brings experience from both the National Security Council Staff and the International Security Assistance Force, and Dr. Ben Connable, author of a RAND monograph entitled, Embracing the Fog of War: Assessment and Metrics in Counterinsurgency, They join guest host and U.S. Army War College Fellow LTC Ranjini Danaraj for a serious discussion about the assessment of military forces in Afghanistan. The conversation covers assessment shortfalls, optimism in reporting, holding commanders accountable to their assessment, creating competitive perspectives, taking a long view of war, and measuring will to fight. Assessing is no easy task, but this episode provides insights on how to get it right, breaking the military’s assessment failure cycle, and helping military leaders accurately and credibly inform strategy decisions.

Twelve years ago last week, on May 2, 2011, the U.S. military conducted a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan that killed Usama bin Laden. Once the mission was accomplished, the SEAL team conducted sensitive site exploitation and gathered up and returned with all of the materials and equipment they discovered in the compound. Nelly Lahoud and her team sorted through some 97,000 files and 6,000 pages of declassified documents, all in Arabic, to discover the truth about bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. She's in the studio to discuss her book, "The Bin Laden Papers: How the Abbottabad Raid Revealed the Truth about Al-Qaeda, Its Leader and His Family" with host John Nagl. The information gleaned from this incredible undertaking paints a picture of a man and a network that, after the 9/11 attack, were confined, restrained and not very successful.

The United States spent over 20 years in Afghanistan and while a lot has been written about the missteps, there is much to be written about the solutions that would have lent to better outcomes. This is the first of a three-part series on Afghanistan and its lessons. Guest host and U.S. Army War College Fellow LTC Ranjini Danaraj and MG Donn Hill, the Commander of Security Force Assistance Command, have a candid discussion on what the U.S. Army has learned about security force assistance, building balanced and sustainable foreign security forces, and operationalizing the lessons learned from Afghanistan. MG Hill shares insights on how the Army's security force assistance brigades are taking best practices to armies around the world and what is now codified in the forthcoming update to FM 3-22, Army Support to Security Cooperation.

When twins Derek and TJ Baird joined the Army in the '90s, neither of them had any idea what lay ahead. But 26 and 30 years later respectively, one is a colonel and the other a command sergeant major, and it's safe to say the Army has been a great place for them. The Baird brothers join podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to tell the story of two very different yet very similar careers serving the nation. Derek and TJ share how they have relied on each other throughout the years for advice and support both as professional soldiers and as brothers. It's a great story of their similar leadership philosophies and styles and decades of service that they plan to continue for decades more.

2023 is, of course, the 20th anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq. There has already been and surely will be much more examination of the event and the subsequent consequences of the war but very little of the analysis has been from the viewpoint of the Iraqis. Sam Helfont changed that with his new book "Iraq against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order." He joins podcast editor, Ron Granieri, to explain how he gained access to internal Ba'th Party files that reveal the foreign policy, inner workings and previously unknown actors in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a fascinating discussion of the decade leading up to the invasion from the view of the Iraqis, and how they were able to disrupt global norms and divide Western states.

In March 2023, the Society for Military History held its annual meeting in San Diego. During the conference, Phil Shackleford, librarian, military historian and host of The Modern Scholar Podcast, moderated a roundtable titled Making Airwaves – The Profession of History and the World of Podcasting. Phil was kind enough to share the live recording of the roundtable and we want to share it with you, our listeners. The panel included the hosts of multiple podcast hosts in the military history sphere: Bill Allison, Georgia Southern University, Co-Host, Military Historians are People, Too! https://www.mhptpodcast.com/ Alycia Asai, Sonoma State University, Host, Civics & Coffee https://www.civicsandcoffee.com/ Kelly DeVries, Loyola University Maryland, Co-Host, Bow and Blade https://bowandblade.libsyn.com/website Ron Granieri, Army War College, Host, A Better Peace: The War Room Podcast https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/category/podcasts/ Philip C. Shackelford, South Arkansas Community College, Host, The Modern Scholar Podcast https://modernscholarpodcast.com/ Be sure to check out the fascinating podcasts from the other panel participants. *This episode was recorded live during a conference session, so please excuse any irregularities in audio quality. It originally aired on The Modern Scholar Podcast on 1 April 2023.