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, strate...
Michael Cook, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and author of A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity, joins the show to discuss the sudden, explosive Arab expansion of the 7th century.
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• 01:46 Introduction
• 03:05 Sources
• 04:42 War and politics
• 07:32 Grass and sand
• 09:30 Self-defense
• 12:21 Ibn Khaldun
• 16:11 An Arab identity
• 18:45 Knock on effects
• 26:40 Two targets
• 28:32 The Arab way of war
• 34:50 Coming out of the desert
• 38:48 Civil war
• 42:27 Jihad
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46:20
Ep 180: Stephen Kotkin on Endgames in Ukraine
Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, joins the show to discuss how both sides have lost the Ukraine War, and the risks of various routes to peace.
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Times
• 02:47 Pressuring Putin
• 12:50 A new path
• 17:07 Avoiding a debacle
• 32:43 Friends
• 38:30 Realignment
• 46:58 Articulating strategy
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
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53:44
Ep 179: Phillips O’Brien on Grand Strategy in WW2
Phillips O’Brien, chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War, joins the show to discuss the nature of strategic decision making in World War II and beyond.
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Times
• 01:50 Introduction
• 02:48 Germany 1st debunked
• 06:50 A matter of choices
• 08:20 Management styles
• 11:23 FDR the navalist
• 14:42 Strategic balance
• 16:52 The British Empire
• 18:58 Churchill the shapeshifter
• 26:42 Britain’s place
• 29:22 Casablanca
• 33:54 Making Hitler
• 38:43 Firepower + racial superiority
• 42:41 Delaying defeat
• 44:55 A childish view of war
• 46:50 Human decisions
• 48:28 Stalin the survivor
• 51:30 “Not nice people”
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53:42
Ep 178: Mark Montgomery on Cyber War
Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at FDD and retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, joins the show to discuss how prepared (or ill-prepared) the U.S. is for cyber warfare.
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Times
• 03:24 Introduction
• 04:20 America: A Target Rich Environment
• 05:59 Cyber and mobilization
• 08:35 What actually happens?
• 11:36 Automation
• 16:18 Salt and volt typhoon
• 22:04 Continuity of the economy
• 28:33 Offense
• 35:05 Cyber responses
• 38:43 Public opinion
• 41:43 Defense of the homeland
• 49:30 A new kind of leader
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52:48
Ep 177: Christopher Kolakowski on Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.
Christopher Kolakowski, director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and editor of Tenth Army Commander: The World War II Diary of Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., joins the show to discuss the most senior U.S. officer killed by enemy action in WWII, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.
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Times
• 01:44 Introduction
• 02:15 In the shadows
• 03:53 Fathers and sons
• 06:28 Childhood
• 09:30 West Point Commandant of Cadets
• 16:03 Alaska ’41
• 20:18 The Japanese threat
• 24:20 10th Army
• 29:03 Notes for an unwritten memoir
• 31:02 Operation Causeway
• 35:47 Okinawa
• 41:52 Attrition
• 43:50 Another Anzio?
• 50:57 Homeward bound
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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.
Visit our Substack for episode transcripts
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