Ep 200: Rick Atkinson on the American Revolution at 250
Rick Atkinson, historian and author of The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, joins the show to discuss the causes, conduct, and epic consequences of the American Revolution.
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Times
• 02:08 Introduction
• 02:21 Journalism
• 04:30 Mogadishu
• 09:30 Lessons
• 12:49 Ideology
• 16:36 Diplomacy
• 20:21 Boston
• 22:59 “Blows must decide”
• 28:05 British strategy
• 31:27 Washington
• 36:49 Franklin in Paris
• 41:15 Friendless Britain
• 45:57 Legacy
• 51:24 250th Celebration
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53:35
Ep 199: Jonathan Hackett on Our Failures in Iraq & Afghanistan
Jonathan Hackett, former U.S. Marine Corps interrogator and author of Theory of Irregular War, joins the show to discuss America’s post-9/11 wars and how irregular warfare works.
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Times
• 01:12 Introduction
• 01:30 A good interrogator
• 03:26 Afghanistan
• 06:15 In the interrogation room
• 12:10 The Reid Technique
• 14:27 Galula
• 17:10 A military solution
• 23:32 Voluntary acceptance
• 25:34 Irregular War
• 28:20 The war we have
• 31:33 COIN
• 36:10 Speaking the language
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41:00
Ep 198: Robert D. Kaplan on Crisis
Robert D. Kaplan, Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and author of Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis, joins the show to discuss the world’s current state of “permanent crisis”.
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Times
• 01:40 Introduction
• 02:00 Far Rockaway
• 04:55 Balkan Ghosts
• 08:20 Geography and technology
• 10:55 Weimar
• 13:43 Mediocrities
• 17:44 Reading deeply
• 20:30 Shakespeare
• 23:20 Where to watch
• 26:59 Xi and Taiwan
• 28:39 Sacred honor
• 31:22 Post-modern cities
• 33:28 AI and atrophy
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38:10
Ep 197: Mick Ryan on the Ukrainian Battlefield
Mick Ryan, retired major general in the Australian Army and author of
The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire, joins the show to discuss the evolving battlefield and cycles of change and innovation going on in Ukraine.
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Times
• 01:35 Introduction
• 02:17 Touring the front
• 05:11 No place safe
• 07:01 Change
• 11:24 Wire guided drones
• 15:31 Task organization
• 20:38 Drone defense
• 22:49 Is artillery dead?
• 26:39 Rethinking procurement
• 30:34 2014
• 33:07 Putin’s objectives
• 36:05 Formula for ceasefire
• 38:02 A just solution
• 39:41 Surprise is alive and well
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41:55
Ep 196: Thomas Bruscino and Mitchell G. Klingenberg on Mapping Warfare
Thomas Bruscino, professor at the U.S. Army War College, and Mitchell G. Klingenberg, assistant professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, join the show to discuss their article "Making War Upon the Map" The U.S. Army’s Forgotten Map Problem, Meade’s Gettysburg Campaign, and Depicting Operational Art.
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Times
• 02:05 Introduction
• 03:12 What’s missing?
• 06:17 A modern problem
• 09:27 Meade takes command
• 11:29 Seeing both sides
• 15:41 South Mountain
• 22:54 Lee’s mistakes
• 30:11 Meade’s good choices
• 36:32 Mapping in 2025
• 41:51 Visualization
• 47:37 Developing doctrine
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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history. Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and former China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras. The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.
Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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