Defense One Radio

What might an invasion of Taiwan look like, and how can allies help the island nation better defend itself?  Guest: Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a geopolitics think-tank in Washington. Sources: “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century,” by Dmitri Alperovitch, published April 2024;  “Surveying the Experts U.S. and Taiwan Views on China’s Approach to Taiwan in 2024 and Beyond,” by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, January 2024.

The author of “White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan" discusses shoring up defenses against a blockade or invasion.  Guest: Mick Ryan, retired Australian Army major general, strategist, and author. Sources: “White Sun War: The Campaign for Taiwan,” by Mick Ryan, published May 2023; "Chinese Warship Activities around Taiwan," by Si-Fu Ou, director of the Division of Chinese Politics, Military and Warfighting Concepts at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan; “From Coercion to Capitulation, How China Can Take Taiwan Without a War,” by the Institute for the Study of War, May 2024.

Guest: Chris Blattman, economist, political scientist, and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the University of Chicago. Sources:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Guests: Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness; And Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Sources:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Guest: Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a postdoctoral fellow in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Source material:  “Global military spending surges amid war, rising tensions and insecurity,” published April 2024 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute;  “Back in Stock? The State of Russia's Defense Industry after Two Years of the War,” by Maria Snegovaya, Max Bergmann, Tina Dolbaia, Nick Fenton, and Samuel Bendett, published April 2024 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies;  “Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending,” by Mackenzie Eaglen, published April 2024 by the American Enterprise Institute;  “Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Escalation Risks,” by Ankit Panda, published October 2023 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;  “Missile Proliferation and Control in the Asia-Pacific Region,” from Jeffrey Lewis and Kolja Brockmann, published April 2024 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies; And “Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace,” from Chris Blattman, published April 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Defense One's Audrey Decker interviews Gen. David Allvin and Air Mobility Command's Gen. Mike Minihan (at the 32:42 mark). You can also catch all of our 2024 State of Defense interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One Executive Editor Bradley Peniston speaks with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti; and Defense One's Patrick Tucker sat down with Fourth Fleet commander Rear Adm. James Aiken (at the 28:09 mark). You can watch both of these interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One's Sam Skove speaks to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George; and Defense One's Jennifer Hlad speaks with Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. You can watch both of these interviews on Defense One's YouTube page, here.

Defense One's Sam Skove speaks to Assistant Commandant Gen. Christopher Mahoney; and Defense One's Jennifer Hlad interviews Marine Corps Combat Development Command's Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl. You can also watch either of these interviews on Defense One's events page, here.

Defense One's Audrey Decker speaks to Chief of the Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman; and Defense One's Lauren Williams interviews Air Force Col. Michelle Idle, deputy commander of Space Systems Command. You can also watch either of these interviews on Defense One's events page, here.

The author and Marine veteran discusses the future of technology, the promise of AI, the perils of toxic politics, and other themes packed into his latest work of speculative fiction.  Guest: Elliot Ackerman, co-author of "2054: A Novel," which was published on March 12. Find our previous discussions with Ackerman here: Ep. 107: The legacy of America’s Afghan war; And Ep. 79: “2034: A Novel of the Next World War”.

Audrey Decker unpacks the top news from this year's Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium. Here's a roll-up of her reporting from the AFA symposium: Air Force announces major shakeup to prep for war with China; Air Force will narrow its pool of robot wingman vendors within ‘next few months’; 'Unexpected’ engineering slows price negotiations on USAF radar plane USAF plans stealthy tankers for ‘extreme threat areas’; Lockheed vows steady F-35 production amid demand shifts And First Ukrainian F-16 pilots will complete training as soon as May.

How does the Kremlin force an entirely new reality on an occupied city? And how do Europeans feel about the invasion and U.S. hesitation to rearm Ukraine?   Guests: Karolina Hird, analyst and Russia Deputy Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War; Karin von Hippel is Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute. You can find Hird's recent report, "The Kremlin's Occupation Playbook: Coerced Russification and Ethnic Cleansing in Occupied Ukraine," here.

Guests: Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations; Jacob Ware, research fellow also at the Council on Foreign Relations. Their book “God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-right Terrorism in America" was published in January.

We review how the Iran-backed Houthis are disrupting global shipping in the Red Sea, and we look back at similar dynamics near the end of the so-called tanker wars of the late 1980s. Guests: Fabian Hinz, research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies; Patrick Tucker, science and technology editor at Defense One; And Bradley Peniston, Defense One executive editor.

We take stock of our last 12 months of interviews, featuring conversations with generals, White House officials, researchers, authors, our own reporters, and many more. Guests include: U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell, who at the time commanded the United States Army Japan; he is now commander of the ISIS-focused Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (from episode 115); Monica Toft, professor of international politics and the director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; and Sidita Kushi, assistant professor of political science at Bridgewater State University (from episode 116); Michael Knights, security analyst with the Washington Institute (from episode 124); Defense One's Sam Skove (from episode 125); Sam Bendett, advisor in Russian studies at CNA (from episode 126); Defense One's Patrick Tucker (from episode 129); Decker Eveleth, graduate research assistant at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California (from episode 130); Martin Pfeiffer, a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of New Mexico (from episode 131); Patrick Tucker again (from episode 132); Sam Skove again (from episode 134); Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Joshua Geltzer is Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor at the National Security Council (from episode 135); And Barak Mendelsohn, Professor of Political Science at Haverford College in Philadelphia (from episode 138).

The Army's top buyer and the Pentagon's integration chief talk Ukraine, non-traditional suppliers, and more.  Guests: Army Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush sat down with Defense One Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Integration, and Interoperability Dave Tremper spoke with Defense One Technology editor Patrick Tucker.

We take a look at how officials around the region are carrying on with business as usual despite Israel's war with Hamas. Guest: Audrey Decker is a Defense One staff reporter, where she writes about air and space.

This episode, we discuss the daunting task of clearing Gaza City of Hamas as well as Israel's goal of crushing the group once and for all. Guests: Ret. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, distinguished senior fellow on national security at the Middle East Institute (beginning at the 2:15 mark); And Barak Mendelsohn, Professor of Political Science at Haverford College in Philadelphia (at 15:52).

Guests: Mark Kitz, program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical (interviewed by Defense One's Lauren Williams, beginning at the 1:10 mark); And Army Brig. Gen. Guillaume Beaurpere of the Army’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, as well as Maj. Gen. Christopher Eubank of Network Enterprise Technology Command (with Defense One's Patrick Tucker) at the 9:38 mark).