The Operational Arch

Hosts Major Carlen Vician and Major Evelyn Payne sit down with Brian Steed—historian, retired Army foreign area officer, and author of Narrative War: The Philosophy of Social Conflict—about how narrative shapes modern conflict and planning in the information domain. Steed explains four “grammars” of war (positional, maneuver, firepower, and narrative), tracing shifts from defeating army wings to armies, states, and attempts to paralyze systems, arguing narrative is dominant in 2025 while other philosophies still appear (e.g., positional warfare in Ukraine). He describes narrative as an organizing framework for identity and interpretation, emphasizes aligning “words, deeds, and images,” and offers planning questions about desired narrative end states and the effort required to change narrative terrain. He outlines narrative strategies of disruption, displacement, and exhaustion, critiques Western difficulty with exhaustion campaigns, and closes with “rules of social conflict,” including that actors act and publish according to their narratives and cannot be changed by money unless already corrupt.00:00 Welcome to Operational Arch01:13 Meet Dr Brian Steed02:15 Four Philosophies of War02:37 From Forts to Systems06:35 Why Narrative War Now10:27 Narrative Across Five Rings11:28 Planning Narrative Objectives13:23 Deception and Downhill Stories16:21 Types of Narrative Conflict20:50 Defining Narrative for Leaders24:10 Societal Narratives and Pitfalls27:06 Lessons from Jordan and Iraq28:49 Lawrence of Arabia Influence32:23 Disruption, Displacement, Exhaustion37:16 Exhaustion Campaigns and Gaza43:09 Rules of Social Conflict46:43 Closing

In this episode, hosts Major DJ Taylor and Major Evelyn Payne sit down with Major General (Ret.) James "Spider" Marks — decorated Army intelligence officer, Georgetown University professor, and CNN military analyst — for a wide-ranging conversation on operational planning, intelligence, and leadership.General Marks draws on over 30 years of service, including his roles as Senior Intelligence Officer during the 1992 LA Riots and Operation Iraqi Freedom, to share hard-won lessons on anticipating threats, bridging the gap between tactical and strategic objectives, and navigating the complexity of modern military operations. He also tackles the growing role of AI on the battlefield, the challenge of controlling the narrative in an information-saturated environment, and what it truly means to keep it simple as a planner and leader.Whether you're a SAMS student, a field grade officer, or a student of strategy, this episode delivers candid, experience-driven insight into the art of operational thinking.Timestamps0:00 — Producer intro / Episode overview1:01 — Show intro & Guest bio (MG Spider Marks)2:27 — Advising operational leaders in a volatile world5:10 — AI, screens, and staying in the loop8:01 — Managing complex organizations and decision-making10:18 — Linking political objectives to tactical goals15:16 — What he'd do differently as a planner17:43 — Understanding the operational environment with limited time (AI, outside experts)22:09 — Formalizing informal relationships25:50 — DSCA & the LA Riots36:28 — How to see around corners today39:20 — Controlling the narrative in the age of instant media42:50 — Who influenced him most46:18 — Parting advice to SAMS students

Major Spencer Bates sits down with Colonel Ethan Diven, the US Army Command and General Staff College Commandant, and former Commander of Operations Group at the NationalTraining Center, to explore the evolving challenges facing the operational force. From multi-domain competition to professional military education reform, COL Diven draws on a career spanning NTC, Afghanistan, Operation Octave Quartz,and Operation Allies Refuge to deliver hard-won lessons on planning, leadership, and the responsibility of field-grade officers.Colonel Diven's key take-aways? 1.    Ruthlessly protect your time to think while in PME — it is the point.2.    Leadership is always required in an operational planning team, from any position.3.    Army University exists to accelerate observations from the contemporary environment and reimagine how education is delivered — with war fighting always at the core. Timestamps 0:50 — Introduction & Guest Background2:13 — Current Challenges Facing the Operational Force6:11 — Building Better Divisions: Evolving from Brigade-Centric to Division-Level War Fighting9:19 — Multi-Domain Operations: NTC Initiatives & Incorporating MDO Challenges12:16 — Building Jointness: Initiatives Across the Services14:02 — Army University's Role in Developing Future Leaders16:25 — What the Force Expects from Field Grade Graduates19:40 — Building the Operational Artist: The Transformative Experience of PME21:22 — Humility, Responsibility & Self-Awareness as a Leader23:16 — Value-Added from Day One: What Graduates Must BeUpon Returning to the Force25:43 — How PME Translates to Real-World Campaigning26:47 — Operation Octave Courts: Repositioning fromSomalia Under Constraints30:32 — Bridging Strategy to Execution: Critical Transitions in Joint Operations32:21 — Operation Allies Refuge: Planning in a Contested & Rapidly Evolving Environment35:48 — Planning Across Distributed Teams: Managing Time, Space & Coordination37:39 — The Power of Assumptions in Operational Planning39:53 — Key Takeaways & Closing Thoughts

In this episode of The Operational Arch, hosts Spencer Bates and DJ Taylor sit down with Lieutenant General Chun In-bum (Ret.), former commander of the Republic of Korea Special Warfare Forces and U.S. Army War College graduate, for a wide-ranging conversation on the enduring U.S.-ROK alliance. General Chun explores the deep historical, cultural, and security ties that bind the two nations — from Korea's democratic founding under American mentorship to the shared sacrifices of the Vietnam War. The discussion shifts to the operational challenges of the Korean Peninsula, including terrain, deterrence, the importance of adaptive planning, and the combined Second Infantry Division as a model for allied partnership. The episode closes with a sobering look at North Korea's battlefield performance in Ukraine, the growing Russia-DPRK relationship, and General Chun's call for greater focus on civil-military relations and cognitive warfare as the defining challenges of the modern era. 0:00     Guest Introduction & Overview— Introduction of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Chun In-bum, ROK Armed Forces1:50     The U.S.-ROK "Blood Alliance"7:05     Cultural Ties: Religion, Education & K-Culture10:36    Security Challenges: China, Japan & the North Korean Threat14:13    "Never Underestimate the North Koreans"16:21    Campaigning on the Korean Peninsula19:34    Simple Ops, Detailed Logistics: the key to effective combined operations21:52    The ROK as Partner, Not Competitor31:09    The KPA in Ukraine: Motivation, Indoctrination & Vulnerability41:04    Civil-Military Relations & Cognitive Warfare: the defining challenges of the modern era

In this episode of The Operational Arch, hosts Spencer Bates and DJ Taylor sit down with Steven Box, founder and CEO of Vanguard Tactics and a top-ranked competitive Warhammer coach, alongside SAMS professor Matt Yandura. The conversation explores how Box's "IDEA" framework — developed over years of competitive tabletop wargaming and coaching — maps surprisingly well to military decision-making: gathering the right information under time pressure, making rapid decisions, executing with composure, and assessing outcomes to adapt. The episode also digs into why SAMS invited an outside expert from a non-traditional field and what operational planners can learn from embracing failure, coaching others, and considering future operating environments.Content:0:00 — Intro & episode overview2:31 — Steven Box's background: from Royal Navy aptitude tests to volleyball, bodybuilding, and Warhammer7:42 — What is Warhammer? A layman's explanation9:03 — Why SAMS brings in outside experts: Professor Yandura on SAMS' mandate to experiment11:31 — Introducing the IDEA framework (the "Box Method")12:10 — I — Information: Gathering the right info under time pressure; SWOT analysis on the battlefield15:05 — D — Decision: Translating information into decisive action; identifying priorities and trade-offs18:47 — E — Execution: Resource allocation, composure under pressure, managing variance21:14 — A — Assessment: What went well, what didn't, and when to pivot23:57 — Coaching philosophy: meeting people where they are and building from there25:31 — The value of purposeful failure and learning from losses32:41 — SAMS' Future Operating Environment course: forecasting, futures thinking, and speculative scenarios45:32 — Closing takeaways & acknowledgments (CGSC Foundation shoutout)