School of War

Ep 28: Wesley Morgan on AfghanistanWesley Morgan, journalist and author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, joins the show to discuss his experiences in the Pech Valley, one of Afghanistan’s most contested battlegrounds, and to talk about the U.S. counterinsurgency’s successes and failures. This episode is part 1 of 2.Times  02:52 Introduction 04:28 From Princeton to The Pech 07:25 The Age Dynamic  09:46 Fighting Styles In Helmand Province  12:42 The Episodic Nature Of Fighting In Afghanistan  13:42 The Terrain Of The Pech Valley 17:11 Seeking Bin Laden In Kunar  18:43 Kafiristan - Daniel Dravot’s Dream 20:27 Special Forces - A Tool For Every Task 24:21 The Role Of Seal Team Six and Delta Force 29:36 Seeking The Enemy  31:23 Who Was The Enemy In The Pech? 33:58 The Timber Mafia

Ep 27: Fred Kagan on Ukraine IIFred Kagan, Senior Fellow and Director of Critical Threats Project at AEI, joins the show to discuss where the war in Ukraine stands, how initial Russian designs failed, and where the conflict is headed.Times  02:14 Introduction 03:22 Accurate Predictions 06:45 The Baffling Russian Attack on Kyiv  08:36 A River Runs Through…The Russian Plan  10:22 Operational Design 101 13:22 Back To Basics - Reading Terrain Still Matters 16:33 Russian Objectives In The East 21:51 Russian Command And Control  26:29 Ukrainian Strikes On Senior Russian Officers 28:38 Russian Objectives In The South 33:06 Putin Still Seeking Total Victory? 36:42 Russian Game-plan For The South Coast 39:18 Transnistria 42:27 False Flags - Putin’s Comfort Zone 44:01 Moldovan Capabilities  47:46 Force Is A Kind Of Failure 50:47 Putin’s Options  54:48 Deterrence And Nuclear Taboos Ukraine Maps 05/02/2022 per ISW

Ep 26: Andrew Lambert on the Crimean War Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College, joins the show to discuss the Crimean War, including why it shouldn’t have been called by that name. Professor Lambert also explains the relevance of the Crimean War to today’s war in Ukraine.Times • 01:28 Introduction• 02:20 Causes of the Crimean War• 07:57 Flashpoint in the Holy Land• 12:31 Steamships and Strategy• 16:34 Functional Dysfunction in Policymaking• 21:44 Why Target Sevastopol?• 26:44 What Went Wrong• 31:47 The Press and Public Opinion• 36:31 Reading Events Incorrectly • 38:57 The Baltic Campaign• 45:30 Mahan and Corbett Interpret the War• 48:39 Ukraine War - An Echo of the Crimean War• 55:34 Can Russia Re-Integrate Into The Global Community? • 58:32 Will Putin Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons? 

Waller Newell, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Carleton University, joins the show to discuss tyranny and tyrants—and Vladimir Putin in particular. Times 02:05 Introduction 03:43 Let's talk about Vladimir Putin 05:40 What is the Russian "Soul"? 07:19 Quote from "The Russian Idea" 08:40 Who was Nikolai Berdyaev? 09:54 Is Berdyaev an influence on Aleksandr Dugin? 11:05 The West has a hard time understanding non-economic motivations. Why? 13:06 Who is Aleksandr Dugin? 15:21 “Eurasian Nationalist Bolshevism”  16:55 Rehabilitating Stalin 18:40 Are we seeing a perpetuation of Tsarist Russia? 20:40 What is fascism? 22:35 The many types of tyranny 25:12 What kind of tyrant is Putin? 26:50 Why has millenarian tyranny appeared so relatively recently in history? 29:51 The relationship between liberalism and millenarian tyranny 31:25 The next ten years in Russia 34:00 Did Putin know what he was getting himself into in Ukraine? 35:36 The prospect of Russian and Chinese collaboration in the future 36:55 Who drives Chinese policy - Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party? 38:56 Staying sane while studying tyrants 42:10 What should we be reading to better recognize hostile actors for what they are?

Richard Overy, professor of history at the University of Exeter, joins the show to discuss World War II and the wars of imperial aggression.Times 02:23 - Introduction 04:24 - Imperialism prior to World War II 06:00 - Nations as empires 08:32 -Traditional imperialism versus the Axis Powers' concept 11:02 - Who is Halford Mackinder? 13:14 - The development of Germany's vision of empire 14:36 - German war aims in World War I and World War II 17:02 - Germany and the East 22:16 - The Japanese vision of empire 25:01 - How Japan modernization 26:33 - Japan's methods of rule 27:50 - American and the USSR 34:06 - World War II book recommendations

James Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College, joins the show to discuss sea power, the war in Ukraine, and the possibility of war in the Pacific Times 00:58 - Introduction  01:57 - Time spent considering Russia and the NATO alliance’s naval power 04:05 - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grand strategy 05:35 - What does Ukraine mean to Putin? 06:58 - The Crimean War  10:32 - Closing the Bosporus 16:15 - Does the war end well for Putin?  21:28 - Zelensky’s survival  23:12 - Worst-case scenario for Putin  25:43 - What the outcome in Ukraine will mean for Taiwan 28:35 - China’s challenge in Taiwan 31:02 - How security concerns in the early American Republic influence China’s thinking 35:25 - Should the United States shift national security focus to Asia? 

Jeremy Black, a Professor of History at the University of Exeter and military history author, dives into the fascinating evolution of tank warfare. He explores the initial creation of tanks and their critical role in WWII, particularly during Blitzkrieg tactics. The discussion extends to the Soviet Union's strategies in Finland and the impact of armored technology in the Arab-Israeli wars. Additionally, Black analyzes Russia's current military tactics in Ukraine and debates the future relevance of tanks in modern warfare.

Matthew Kroenig, Professor in the Department of Government and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Director of Studies at the Atlantic Council, joins the show to discuss Russian nuclear doctrine and what it means for the war in Ukraine.Times 00:49 - Introduction 01:07 - Forecasting Russia's potential gains in Ukraine 02:45 - The nuclear dimension in Ukraine 05:05 - Russian nuclear doctrine: escalate to de-escalate 10:52 - Potential U.S. responses to Russian nuclear strikes on NATO allies 12:54 - Perceptions of nuclear weapons, from the Cold War to now 15:46 - Battlefield nuclear tactics 18:32 - Russian thinking on employing chemical weapons 21:05 - U.S. nuclear weapons policy 25:44 - Scenarios when Russia would use nuclear weapons 27:16 - Putin's rationale and next steps 29:21 - Russian strikes and potential fault lines in Western unity 32:30 - U.S. reliance on Russia's brokerage of a nuclear deal with Iran

Ep. 20: Bill Roggio on UkraineBill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, joins the show to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.01:10 - Introduction7:32 - Assessing Russian objectives in Ukraine13:25 - Russian shortfalls23:12 - Limits on Russian resources28:37 - Does the lack of preparation hurt Russian troops?32:21 - No fly zones38:36 - Escalation scenarios43:00 - Prospects for insurgency 49:32 - How does this end?

Fred Kagan, Director of Critical Threats Project at AEI, joins the show to discuss the first week of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.Times:00:42 - Introduction 01:40 - The situation at present06:39 - Nature of original build-up of Russian forces14:50 - Russian strategic and operational style17:47 - Lack of political preparation20:44 - Putin's background24:22 - Will Russia win?30:14 - What are Putin's weaknesses?34:20 - What happens next if Kyiv falls?39:41 - Impact on American national security