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Description
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.
240 Episodes
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James Titterton, historian and author of Deception in Medieval Warfare: Trickery and Cunning in the Central Middle Ages, joins the show to discuss strategies and stratagems in the age of castles and knights.
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Times
• 01:29 Introduction
• 02:18 High Middle Ages
• 09:03 Oathbreakers
• 12:01 Sources
• 16:21 Doctrine
• 22:07 Bribery
• 31:23 Spies and feints
• 39:26 Plausibility
• 42:19 Professionals
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Toshi Yoshihara, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and author of Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy, joins the show to discuss how the PLA took Beijing in 1949 by subversion, and how they may yet seize Taiwan.
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Times
• 01:53 Introduction
• 03:24 Peaceful liberation
• 07:19 Planning and preparation
• 10:36 Isolation
• 17:30 A tradition of manipulation
• 23:51 True believers
• 28:23 Helpless
• 34:55 Political warfare
• 41:53 Surprise
• 47:32 Holy Grail
• 50:51 Fault lines
• 57:44 What to read?
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Joshua Rovner, Associate Professor in the School of International Service at American University and author of Strategy and Grand Strategy, joins the show to discuss the tension between pursuing military victory and securing a nation.
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Times
• 01:28 Introduction
• 01:35 MIT
• 05:03 Grand strategy
• 10:45 Peloponnesian War
• 18:05 Spartan strategy
• 22:34 Pericles
• 27:18 A terrible irony
• 32:43 Disastrous victory
• 41:35 British power
• 46:13 Atomic strategy
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Tyler Grey, Delta Force veteran and author of Forged in Chaos: A Warrior's Origin Story, joins the show to discuss his experiences as a member of the U.S. Army’s most elite combat unit, his journey as a warrior, and the continuing struggle to understand post-traumatic stress.
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Times
• 01:30 Introduction
• 01:48 Bakersfield, CA
• 06:51 Predators and prey
• 10:48 Not a choice
• 17:11 Rangers
• 23:15 Elite infantry
• 28:37 9/11
• 33:43 Pakistan border
• 41:20 Sniper team
• 44:22 Luck and health
• 47:05 Master of the basics
• 51:36 Fallujah
• 54:29 Sadr City
• 01:06:16 Chaos of combat
• 01:10:01 Lost
• 01:14:26 “LTSD”
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A. Wess Mitchell, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, historian, and author of Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger, joins the show to discuss just what diplomacy is.
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• 01:37 Introduction
• 02:08 Bad reutation
• 04:37 Misconceptions
• 09:35 A part of grand strategy
• 13:11 Not trickery
• 18:05 Attila the Hun
• 24:17 Appeasement
• 35:00 Other options
• 39:33 The State Department
• 44:22 Molding diplomats
• 47:31 Ukraine
• 52:47 Major risks
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Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina substack, joins the show to discuss his latest piece, Translating Ukraine Lessons for the Pacific Theatre.
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• 01:40 Introduction
• 02:18 Translation
• 04:03 Ground forces
• 08:40 Australian defense
• 11:25 Threats from the North
• 13:25 Chinese influence
• 16:46 The mask slips
• 19:51 What we don’t know
• 24:36 The Pacific
• 32:18 Information ops
• 37:31 Corrosive influences
• 40:15 Mass
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1Ran Baratz, military historian and former senior Israeli official, and author of What's Wrong with the Postmodern Military?, joins the show to discuss operations in Gaza and problems with how the IDF officer corps thinks about war.
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• 01:37 Introduction
• 02:27 Gaza
• 06:23 Diplomatic obstacles
• 12:27 Worse than you think
• 15:28 Paradigm shift
• 30:23 Real wars
• 38:49 Art of the general
• 43:51 War as policy
• 50:00 Netanyahu
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Peter Rough, senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute, joins the show to discuss the recent Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania and what they mean.
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• 01:08 Introduction
• 01:35 What actually happened?
• 05:30 Destructive decoys
• 07:27 European moods
• 11:23 Rightwing response
• 16:32 Strategic autonomy
• 23:52 Zapad
• 30:00 On/off switch
• 33:31 Where do we stand?
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Prit Buttar, historian and author of Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive, joins the show to discuss the immense Russian campaign that broke the German Army on the Eastern Front.
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• 01:48 Introduction
• 02:50 A war unto itself
• 08:02 Flanders
• 15:20 Maskirovka
• 24:35 Soviet intelligence
• 28:27 Bolshevism
• 30:22 Lebensraum
• 31:40 Bagration
• 36:14 Cracking the line
• 39:00 Warsaw
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Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow, China Studies, at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and principal investigator for the Mapping China's Borderlands: Dashboard, joins the show to discuss the shifting visions China has of its frontiers.
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• 01:35 Introduction
• 02:34 What is “China?”
• 10:26 Sovereignty
• 19:30 Double translation
• 25:25 Capillaries
• 34:37 Imperial messaging
• 42:36 Prioritization
We also discuss Nadège’s 2020 report - China's Vision for a New World Order.
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Brad Bowman and Ryan Brobst, senior and deputy directors of the Center on Military and Political Power at FDD, join the show to discuss the military relationships between America’s major antagonists.
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Times
• 01:47 Introduction
• 02:40 Axis cooperation
• 08:02 Interoperability
• 11:19 Fighting all three
• 14:49 Potential
• 20:57 The arsenal
• 26:56 Progress
• 28:30 Budgeting
• 36:10 Will and capability
• 39:03 Harpoon Coastal Defense System
• 41:31 Per unit cost over speed
• 44:25 Buy-side issue
• 47:49 Production lessons
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Yaakov Katz, senior fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute and author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, joins the show to discuss Israel’s intelligence and military failures on the night of 6-7 October, 2023.
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• 01:35 Introduction
• 02:47 Foundational facts
• 09:45 Communication failure
• 17:39 Minority reports
• 25:40 Left alone
• 30:15 Accountability
• 39:37 Cultural costs
• 47:30 A deal
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Geoffrey Wawro, founding director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and author of The Vietnam War: A Military History, joins the show to discuss the causes of U.S. failure in Vietnam.
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Times
• 01:21 Introduction
• 01:50 Schools of thought
• 07:45 Orthodoxy
• 13:24 A war of choice
• 17:49 Ambivalence
• 20:15 Korean nightmare
• 23:53 Lessons
• 28:38 Policy makers
• 32:34 Obvious flaws
• 37:10 Ground war
• 42:21 South Vietnam
• 51:30 Certain defeat
• 56:21 Local politics
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Major Geoff Ball, USMC, co-founder of the Connecting File, commanded Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during the evacuation at Kabul International Airport in 2021, including the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate on 26 August. He shares the story of his company and their extraordinary service in Afghanistan.
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• 01:51 Introduction
• 02:03 The Marines
• 08:20 Quantico
• 13:07 29 Palms
• 16:32 On the job training
• 21:54 Ghost Company
• 26:44 The call
• 32:10 Isolation
• 38:30 Abbey Gate
• 46:16 Unity of effort
• 48:53 Who got through
• 51:40 The Taliban
• 52:54 26 August
• 56:52 Take command
• 59:47 No good choices
• 01:06:42 The Fallen
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Barry Strauss, Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire, joins the show to discuss the long, fractious, often violent relationship between Ancient Rome and her Jewish subjects.
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• 01:11 Introduction
• 01:37 Rome and Parthia
• 07:50 Judea
• 12:07 Roman control
• 17:58 Jewish warfighting
• 20:20 Herod
• 26:03 The Great Revolt
• 31:06 Enter Parthia
• 33:23 The Temple
• 35:01 70 years
• 40:24 Driven out
• 42:02 Parallels with today
• 44:33 Donald Kagan
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Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina Substack, joins the show to break down the latest on Ukraine, from the battlefield to the White House.
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Times
• 01:05 Introduction
• 02:06 The front
• 06:23 Fortress belt
• 08:38 ROI
• 10:55 Shifting feelings
• 14:41 A realistic settlement
• 20:53 After Alaska
• 23:15 Boots on the ground
• 25:45 Unpredictability
• 28:49 A different vibe
• 31:31 Stop the killing
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Colonel Peter Mansoor, U.S. Army (retired), General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History at The Ohio State University and authors of Redemption: MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines, joins the show to discuss the largest campaign of the Pacific War, the liberation of the Philippines.
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Times
• 01:08 Introduction
• 01:30 Why West Point?
• 06:11 Petraeus
• 09:55 A huge scale
• 11:25 War Plan Orange
• 16:25 Inevitable
• 20:07 The guerrilla war
• 26:53 Mindanao & Luzon
• 31:33 Leyte Gulf
• 37:52 A do or die campaign
• 40:04 Manila
• 44:34 Command responsibility
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Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders, both of the U.S. National Defense University and authors of China's Quest for Military Supremacy, join the show to discuss the origins, organization, and strategic outlook of China’s military.
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Times
• 01:22 Introduction
• 01:57 Origins
• 06:58 Crisis control
• 08:48 PLA structure
• 13:05 1960
• 20:17 Horizontal escalation
• 24:34 By land or sea
• 28:23 American resolve
• 30:54 Xi
• 36:41 A lack of experience
• 44:10 Military diplomacy
• 48:17 Reading list
• 50:43 Be unpredictable
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Marc LiVecche, McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence and author of The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury, joins the show to discuss Just War Theory and whether the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fit in that framework.
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• 01:23 Introduction
• 01:30 Misspent youth
• 07:51 Moral injury
• 13:27 Conflicting views
• 19:15 Richard Frank
• 28:53 Right not moral
• 39:12 Not the same
• 40:36 Gifts from heaven
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Stephen Platt, professor of Chinese history at UMass Amherst and author of The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II, joins the show to discuss the incredible life of Evans Carlson.
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• 01:48 Introduction
• 02:50 American quirk
• 08:14 China
• 10:18 Soviet policy
• 14:01 Nicaragua
• 16:29 Edgar Snow
• 21:11 FDR
• 24:42 8th Route Army
• 31:52 Embargo
• 38:30 Raiders
• 42:40 Makin Island
• 46:30 Force multiplier
• 52:44 1946
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This podcast keeps pretending that Trump is not on the side of the Russians. Very dishonest.
The over rationalization of Trumps meandering halfassed bullshit is embarrassing from a so-called expert. Remember the guy doesnt read the security briefs 🤦🏻♂️
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Lost me with the woke bce. Go woke, go broke.
Fantastic episode!