School of War

When it comes to world superpowers, Cambridge historian Brendan Simms argues there are only four that matter—and two of them are fading. Today, Simms joins Aaron MacLean to argue that Britain still belongs among the world’s leading powers; why its place among them is “by no means guaranteed”; and why Hitler is no longer the absolute evil against which people define themselves.

4:08 The Four R’s of Great Power

4:29 Defining Great Power

8:09 Iran’s Regional Power

11:44 The Great Powers Return

15:39 The Cold War

17:44 Europe Wakes Up

21:45 American Unipolarity Ends

25:16 Britain’s Great-Power Claim

35:47 The New World Order

38:26 Realism’s Blind Spots

42:07 Losing Postwar Optimism

45:53 A “Post-Hitler World”

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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The story of Air Force General David Goldfein, who miraculously survived after his plane was shot down over Serbia in 1999, has since become military legend. Today, he joins School of War to recount the harrowing rescue mission that saved him, how he stayed alive behind enemy lines, and the lessons his remarkable career offers about leadership, airpower, and preparing America for the next war.

2:43 An Air Force Family

3:25 Rejected by the Air Force Academy

6:39 Becoming an F-16 Pilot

8:12 What Makes a Great Fighter Pilot?

12:36 Information Overload in Combat

15:28 Goldfein’s First Combat Mission

19:57 Training for Confidence Under Fire

21:37 A Leadership Lesson from the Gulf War

24:32 Shot Down Over Serbia

28:51 Surviving Behind Enemy Lines

31:48 The Race to Rescue Goldfein

36:22 Guiding the Rescue Helicopter

44:50 The Impact on His Family

48:53 Witnessing the Attack on the Pentagon

51:19 Digitizing the American Military

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

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More than 75 years after the Korean War, its lessons endure—and divisions over isolationism and American power continue to shape the discourse around modern global conflicts. Dane J. Cash, historian and author of The Forgotten Debate: The Korean War and the Roots of America's Ideological Divisions, joins School of War to explain how the left’s hawk-dove divide during the Korean War foreshadowed the neoconservative break from the liberal consensus during the 1970s and why the political battles of the early Cold War continue to splinter America today.

2:10 America Before the Korean War

3:08 The Debate Over Containment

4:15 Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism

5:29 Did Acheson Invite the War?

8:23 Why North Korea Attacked

8:55 Conservative Criticism of Truman

11:10 Liberal Divisions Over Korea

13:30 The Roots of Neoconservatism

17:14 Truman’s Lonely Middle Ground

19:51 The Right’s Foreign Policy Split

22:05 Taft, Eisenhower, and the GOP

22:58 MacArthur’s Moment

25:31 China Enters the War

30:37 Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy Revolt

33:51 Stalemate, POWs, and Ukraine Parallels

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

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The U.S. military needs more drones, and it needs to build them without Chinese parts. Today, Defense Innovation Unit Deputy Director Travis Metz joins School of War to discuss how America can build drones quickly, cheaply, and on U.S. soil; what America can learn from Ukraine’s drone war; and the Pentagon’s new billion-dollar effort to upgrade its aging military technology.

2:23 - Why America Is Behind on Drones

4:32 - The Drone Dominance Program

6:51 - Breaking Dependence on China

10:23 - The Different Types of Drones

13:34 - Ukraine’s Mid-Range Strike Revolution

16:00 - Cheap Drones at Long Range

18:47 - AI, Autonomy, and Electronic Warfare

21:47 - How Drone Dominance Works

24:33 - Building an American Drone Industry

33:55 - Lessons From Fort Benning

39:19 - Cheap and Expendable Drones

42:01 - Testing Drones for Different Missions

50:14 - The Next Phase of Drone Dominance

55:09 - How Many Drones Does America Need?

1:02:49 - Recreating Ukraine’s Innovation Cycle

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

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In prerevolutionary Russia, it was not uncommon for children to dream of becoming terrorists when they grew up. “It was a respected profession,” says Northwestern University professor Gary Saul Morson, who now sees troubling parallels between modern-day America and an era in Russia when terrorism became fashionable and radicals came to see violence as an expression of moral virtue. Today, Morson joins School of War to discuss what Fyodor Dostoyevsky understood about the terrorist mind, why good people can be persuaded to support terrible acts, and what America loses when it stops teaching the history of communism in schools.

3:09 America and Revolutionary Russia
3:47 The Rise of Modern Terrorism
4:38 When Terrorism Became a Respected Profession
6:10 Why Terrorists Had So Much Power
6:22 Why Russian Liberals Failed to Oppose Terrorism
7:26 The Danger of Celebrating Political Violence
9:36 Dostoevsky’s Radical Youth
11:31 Dostoevsky’s Arrest and Mock Execution
13:15 Understanding the Psychology of Revolutionaries
14:29 How Dostoevsky Predicted Totalitarianism
17:55 Why Communism Was Worse Than the Czars
20:11 Why Liberals Must Oppose Extremism
22:02 The Psychology of Left-Wing Totalitarianism
24:53 What Young People Don’t Know About Communism
28:16 How Good People Come to Support Evil
34:06 What Left and Right-Wing Extremists Have in Common
36:17 How Do We Fight Political Extremism?

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.
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