Strategy Matters

Shahin Berenji, Assistant Professor specializing in Middle East strategic rivalries. Samuel Helfont, historian focused on Iraq and the Iraq Wars. They trace Iran–Iraq borderlands and historic rivalry. They discuss the 1980s war's legacy, Iran’s role after 2003, whether Iraq leans toward Tehran, and how instability in Iran could reshape the region.

Dr. Marc Genest, a public diplomacy and strategy scholar, and Dr. Richard Moss, a Cold War and U.S.-Soviet relations historian, discuss Kissinger's focus on balance-of-power politics and strategic stability. They cover détente, the opening to China, triangular diplomacy using the Sino-Soviet split, back-channel diplomacy, and the tradeoffs of personal versus institutional diplomacy.

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 came later, rather a product of the blame game after the fall of South Vietnam. The US media could not ignore the difficulties the US forces encountered, a situation made worse by the US political and military leadership’s failure to communicate a clear and realistic strategy. Outlining the difficulties of war with limited objectives, the host and the guests discuss the need to rethink communication and home front preparedness when embarking on such a war. The opinions expressed on this podcast represent the views of the presenters and do not reflect the official position of the Department of War, The US Navy, or US Naval War College. Guests:Dr. Nicholas Evan Sarantakes is a Professor at the Strategy and Policy Department and earned a B.A. from the University of Texas, an M.A. from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, all in history. He is an award-winning author with multiple publications. His most recent book, The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War (2025), is a groundbreaking account of this crucial campaign from the American, Japanese, and, significantly, Filipino perspectives. Dr. Cavender Sutton is currently an assistant professor at the US Air War College, but previously served as a Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow in the Strategy and Policy Department (2024-2025). He received his B.A. in History from the University of Georgia, his M.A. in History from East Tennessee State University, and his PhD in Military History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before his academic career, Dr. Sutton served four years in the United States Marine Corps, during which he deployed to Afghanistan twice. His forthcoming book is The Road to Hue: US Marine Combined Action Platoons and the Battle that Changed the Vietnam War.

Anatol Klass, an assistant professor of modern Chinese history, and Ken Swope, a military historian of late imperial China, reassess Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership and strategic choices. They trace his rise, ideological mix, key civil war decisions, US interactions, Madam Chiang’s diplomatic role, corruption’s effects, and how Chiang is remembered differently in Taiwan and the mainland.

Peter Pomerantsev, a Ukrainian-born British journalist and author of books on propaganda, including How to Win an Information War. He debunks common myths about propaganda. He traces how mass media and social change fuel its appeal. He revisits Sefton Delmer’s tactics and highlights audience-first, vernacular, effect-focused approaches in information conflict.

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 World War II. The discussion includes a description of complex adaptive systems, the influence of constraints on effective efforts at adaptation, aligning incentive systems with the desired outcomes, and the importance of communicating a clear objective. The interview closes with Mr. Hone proposing some key takeaways for the modern strategist from the U.S. Navy’s experience in the interwar period.The opinions expressed on this podcast represent the views of the presenters and do not reflect the official position of the Department of War, The U.S. Navy, or U.S. Naval War College.Guests:Trent Hone is a Vice President with ICF and an award-winning naval historian. He works with organizations to improve their art of practice, increase effectiveness, and accelerate learning. He is the author of Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898-1945, Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific, as well as books on Leyte Gulf, Guadalcanal, and the Navies of World War I.

Dr. David Stone, historian of Russian military history, and Dr. Timothy Hoyt, counterterrorism and strategy scholar, discuss the strategic logic behind NATO and its Soviet counterpart. They trace postwar economic collapse, ideological competition, crisis triggers that pushed Western commitments, Soviet reactions, the origins of the Warsaw Pact, and why NATO succeeded where earlier collective security efforts failed.

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 WWI hold many lessons for today’s strategists, including the complexities of peripheral theaters and irregular warfare, the role of seapower in a global conflict, and recruitment and motivation to fight. The host, Dr. Vanya Eftimova Bellinger, is joined by two professors from the Strategy and Policy Department: Dr. Tim Hoyt and Dr. Jesse Tumblin. A renowned expert on irregular warfare, Dr. Hoyt examines why, despite much action in the colonial theaters, they failed to break the stalemate or shift the balance between the belligerents. A historian of the British Empire, Dr. Tumblin discusses how the dominions provided it with manpower and enormous resources, but also challenged the empire’s institutions and war strategy.The opinions expressed on this podcast represent the views of the presenters and do not reflect the official position of the Department of War, The US Navy, or US Naval War College.Guests:Dr. Timothy Hoyt, Ph.D. is the John Nicholas Brown Chair of Counterterrorism and, since 2019, has also served as the Director of the Advanced Strategy Program at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of numerous publications on irregular warfare, COIN and counterterrorism, and South Asia. Dr Hoyt also serves as the Deputy Editor of The Journal of Strategic Studies.Dr. Jesse Tumblin, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of strategy and policy specializing in political and military history, ideas of security, and the current and former British world. He earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from Boston College and a B.A. from the University of Tennessee. He is a past fellow in international security studies at Yale University. He is the author of “The Quest for Security: Sovereignty, Race, and the Defense of the British Empire, 1898-1931” (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and an article on Britain’s attempts to secure its Indo-Pacific empire, which won the Saki Ruth Dockrill Memorial Prize for international history from the Institute for Historical Research, University of London.

Dr. George Satterfield, a military historian and expert on the Napoleonic era, joins Lieutenant Colonel Jon Romaneski, a U.S. Army officer specializing in early military history, and Dr. Vanya Eftimova Bellinger, a Clausewitz scholar. They discuss how the French Revolutionary Wars influenced U.S. strategic thinking despite America's initial neutrality. Key insights include how American leaders adapted lessons from Europe, the contrasting political views on the French Revolution, and the implications of Napoleon's military strategy on modern military thought.

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 Revolution case study, Dr. Ferling’s insights illuminate many of the course themes that cut across the entire course. Drawing on his books Whirlwind and his new work Shots Heard Round the World, Ferling assesses the Revolution’s strategic environment and international context and the central choices both sides faced at the outset of the conflict. Dr. Ferling dives into the challenges of forging a cohesive strategy from competing colonial interests, George Washington’s strengths and weaknesses as a strategic leader, and how diplomacy combined with military operations to shape the war’s trajectory. He also provides perspective on some of the strengths of British military decision-making, particularly by General Henry Clinton. The conversation closes with reflections on the Revolution’s most important strategic principles and why they still matter for today’s strategists.The opinions expressed on this podcast represent the views of the presenters and do not reflect the official position of the Department of War, The US Navy, or US Naval War College.Guests:Dr. John Ferling is a leading historian of the American Revolution who spent most of his four-decade academic career at the University of West Georgia, where he taught courses on Colonial America, U.S. military history, and the Revolution. The author of numerous works, including Whirlwind and Shots Heard Round the World, Ferling has long combined scholarship with a passion for writing accessible history. His career began with two years teaching high school in Texas before moving into higher education in Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and ultimately Georgia. In 2013, he received the Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities in recognition of his lifetime contributions to history and civic culture. A lifelong baseball fan, the first major league game he saw was between Pittsburgh and the Brooklyn Dodgers, a game in which Jackie Robinson scored the winning run. For twenty years he timed his research trips to Boston so that the Red Sox were in town. He has a picture of Fenway Park proudly displayed in his office.