America is at war all over the planet and the American public doesn’t seem to care. Since the end of the Cold War, Americans have largely checked out of foreign policy concerns. Today on War College, American foreign policy analyst Stephen M. Walt walks us through how we got here, and how to fix it. Walt’s new book is The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...
Nov 08, 2018•32 min
The life of a combat medic is hard. When you’re a combat medic in Afghanistan, it’s hard and surreal. This week on War College former U.S. Army medic walks us through what it’s like to save lives in Afghanistan and how he, and his squad, avoided self destruction, the Taliban, and America’s own Special Forces. It’s all captured in Dulak’s new comic book memoir Machete Squad . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 30, 2018•35 min
Why do soldiers fight? Maybe it’s patriotism. Maybe it’s comradeship. Maybe it’s fear of their own side. Or maybe it’s the drugs. For as long as there have been people, there have been people trying to get high. It’s no different in warfare. Fighters have used drugs to make themselves bloodier, stronger, more able to go without sleep. Lukasz Kamienski, author of "Shooting Up: A Short History of Drugs and War," joins us. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. S...
Oct 22, 2018•36 min
Taylor Swift and Islamic State are in a battle for our hearts, minds and eyeballs. Russia wants your vote, or for you not to vote at all. And if you think the amount of false information out there online is dangerous now, just wait. Artificial intelligence is about to make fake news virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Peter W. Singer, author of the new book "LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media," takes us beyond the troll farms and into some even creepier territory. Support th...
Oct 15, 2018•32 min
More than 2,400 years ago, Thucydides of Athens wrote about his city's war with Sparta. Today, that book is still read at military academies all over the world. Why? That's what we asked Dr. Cliff Rogers of West Point. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 08, 2018•29 min
Xi Jinping’s China tends to look at itself as a historical victim, an underdog fighting to roll back indignities of the past and prove its strength. Author and journalist Paul French has been chronicling China’s rise since the 1980s, but has also focused on understanding the development of the country since the Opium Wars of the 19th century. In this episode, French offers his view of how China’s past is informing its aggressive foreign policy now. You can listen to War College on iTunes ,...
Oct 03, 2018•38 min
Qanon is a conspiracy theory that supposes President Donald Trump is at war with an ancient pedophile cult. When Qanon believers began to show up at Trump rallies, the mainstream media took notice. In early August, BuzzFeed published an article that theorized the whole thing was an elaborate prank by leftists activists. Their evidence was a 1999 book about religious rebellions during the 16th century. It’s title? Q . Wu Ming 1, one of the authors of that book joins us today to talk about Q , Qan...
Sep 27, 2018•48 min
The man behind defunct mercenary provider Blackwater sees private air power as the key to winning the war in Afghanistan. A new report links Erik Prince to efforts to buy or build private gunships - the kind of weapon only the United States and a few other countries have at their disposal. David Axe, who writes for the Daily Beast, joins us to discuss the results of his investigation. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...
Sep 18, 2018•34 min
People in Venezuela are murdering each other at the highest rate in the world. Workers are fainting on the job because of hunger. Citizens have lost 20 pounds on average since the country’s economic crisis began. It’s a nation in collapse with no clear way out. How did Venezuela, once one of the world’s richest countries, plummet so far? Keith Johnson of Foreign Policy helps us understand. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website i...
Sep 10, 2018•27 min
Several recent developments have the potential to move the hands of the nuclear doom clock closer to midnight. In this episode from a while back, we talked with the Washington Post's Dan Zak about his reporting on the potential for nuclear war. What he had to say wasn't cheering. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/ ; an...
Sep 08, 2018•31 min
Conspiracy theories are as old as the republic. Actually, they're a lot older than OUR republic. In every country, in every culture, people believe powerful forces are colluding in ways they know nothing about. Why is that? In this week's bonus episode we talk with Jesse Walker, books editor of Reason magazine and author of "The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory." You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollegep...
Sep 04, 2018•31 min
Sometimes called insider, or “green on blue” attacks, when U.S. forces are assaulted by their allies, it usually makes the news. That wasn’t the case in Syria when a member of the Syrian Defense Forces shot a Marine sergeant twice in the leg. Instead, there was no mention of it by the military, no press release. Instead, there was contradictory information and a curious reporter who refused to let it lie. When Paul Szoldra of Task & Purpose first heard of the incident, the only thing that wa...
Aug 27, 2018•27 min
Humanity has never been farther from home than the moon (and that was nearly 50 years ago), but the United States may soon be getting its own Space Force. So, what are the dangers a Space Force is meant to grapple with? And what would it do that isn’t being done now by the Air Force and the other services? The War Zone’s Joseph Trevithick joins us to explain that the dangers in space are very real, even if it isn’t clear that a Space Force is the answer. You can listen to War College on iTunes ,...
Aug 20, 2018•31 min
Children born on Sept. 11 are old enough to fight in the war that began that day. When they go into battle, they will only know the video of the Twin Towers falling, of the Pentagon wounded and smoking, as historical footage, much like the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination looks to an earlier generation. Will they know why they’re fighting in Iraq in Afghanistan? Do we still know? CJ Chivers of The New York Times joins us to talk it through. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Sti...
Aug 13, 2018•27 min
When Syria was pulled apart seven years ago, the United States opted to stay on the sidelines. It was clear that President Bashar Al-Assad was a bad guy, but it was far less clear who the good guys were. Unfortunately, inaction has also had its price for the U.S., according to our guest Steven A. Cook, who is the Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See ac...
Aug 06, 2018•30 min
Bonus Episode: Facebook recently revealed that trolls had been at it again: creating pages intended to drive Americans ever further apart, turning the volume of online political discourse up to 11. All signs point to Russia as the instigator. Graham Brookie of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab joins us to explain what the perpetrators revealed about themselves and what we have to look forward to in the midterms. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play ...
Aug 03, 2018•28 min
One of the great strains on NATO is the question of who’s paying how much for what. But that’s not a new problem. Almost as long as the alliance has been around - 69 years - there’s been arguing over the bills. Germany has been a particular target of late, with the United States calling on the economic powerhouse to pay up. Kathleen Hicks of the Center for Strategic and International Studies offers some needed perspective. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follo...
Jul 31, 2018•31 min
Bashar Al Assad has gassed his own people. An assassin used VX to murder Kim Jong Un’s half-brother. Now, Russia has allegedly used an obscure Cold War era chemical weapon to assassinate an old spy on British soil. The taboo against chemical weapons has eroded and, for those willing to use them, they’re an effective weapon of war. This week on War College, The Daily Beast reporter Adam Rawnsley walks us through the lastest on the chemical weapon attacks in Britain and what these eroding norms mi...
Jul 26, 2018•43 min
From blue-tattooed psychopaths to “businessmen” with a twist, Russia’s vory developed a code all their own - if you can call it that. Mark Galeotti takes us through the history of Russia’s mafia and how that history helped to shape Vladimir Putin’s state. For a more detailed look, check out his book “The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia.” You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollege.co. You can reach us on our Facebook page: ht...
Jul 16, 2018•50 min
This week we talk with the author of “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin,” Timothy Snyder, about the current threat coming out of the East. He argues, in “The Road to Unfreedom,” that there’s more than greed behind Russian President Vladimir Putin - there’s also an ideology that directly targets democracy. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollege.co. You can reach us on our Facebook page: Support this show h...
Jul 09, 2018•22 min
Afghanistan is America’s longest war and the cynical view is that it’ll never end. Marty Skovlund Jr. doesn’t think that’s true. He just returned from Afghanistan where he embedded with American Special Operations Forces on the ground and though he says the war he saw now looks a lot like the war he himself fought years ago, there’s plenty of reasons to hope. Skovlund Jr. is a documentarian, writer, and journalist. He’s a frequent guest of the show and wrote about his recent embed in Afghanistan...
Jul 03, 2018•30 min
Artificial intelligence poses a number of different threats. It can make existing weapons more sophisticated and dangerous, it can help develop new weapons entirely and it can easily be used to create the ultimate surveillance state. All of that is happening particularly quickly in China, which has stated ambitions to lead the world in AI in the near future. Security expert Elsa Kania joins us to explain what’s going on. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow ...
Jun 26, 2018•26 min
Among the hundreds of groups fighting in Syria, one stands out. They’re the ones carrying the swastika flag. Independent journalist Jake Hanrahan joins the show to tell us about them and also why, more and more, people covering war are having to go it alone. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollege.co. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/ ; and on Twitter: @War_College . S...
Jun 22, 2018•32 min
Things got weird in 2016. From meme magick to Alexander Dugin, from Kek to Chaos, occult ideas have become mainstream. Steve Bannon talked about occult fascist philosopher Julius Evola. U.S. President Donald Trump is an adherent of the Norman Vincent Peale and The Power of Positive Thinking . Some in America’s burgeoning neo-Nazi movement see a cartoon frog as an avatar of an Egyptian chaos god. What the hell is going on? On a bonus episode of War College author Gary Lachman joins us to explain ...
Jun 15, 2018•51 min
With just over 270 ships doing the work intended to be done by more than 350, the U.S. Navy is stretched thin enough for the seams to show. In order to keep enough ships at sea, training is getting short shrift, and so is sleep. And that means accidents, some of which have been deadly. What’s to be done about it? Dave Majumdar of National Interest shares a few suggestions, but none of them come cheap. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . O...
Jun 13, 2018•25 min
Berlin in 1943. Hitler has all but conquered Europe and millions of Jews have already died in the Holocaust. In the midst of this, a group of women gathered on Rose Street to demand action. They had lost their brothers, fathers, and husbands and wanted to know what had happened to them. They wanted them back and the protested for answers. It worked. This week on War College, Carnegie Mellon University professor Jessica Hammer and Moira Turkington of War Birds Games takes us through the Rosenstra...
Jun 07, 2018•30 min
Only 1 percent of all Americans serve in the military. Even fewer ever see combat. All of those who do are changed by the experience. This week Tony Russo shares some of the stories he’s gathered from combat veterans for the This Is War podcast. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is warcollege.co. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/ ; and on Twitter: @War_College . Support this s...
May 29, 2018•25 min
When the United States put a machine gun on top of what looked like a bomb-squad robot, it didn’t care much who it was aiming at. But on the whole, drones and other killer robots are pretty effective, and there’s more to come. This week we speak with Kelsey Atherton, a writer for C4ISRNet and Fifth Domain, who brings us up to speed on these deadly machines. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 22, 2018•37 min
Why did the United States stop building the F-22, a fifth generation fighter the Air Force loves? Especially if the F-35 program is very much up in the air - pun intended - with each batch of fighters rolling off the line at least slightly different from previous batches? And are China and Russia having better luck with their fifth gen programs? Tyler Rogaway of The War Zone joins us to shed some light. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly ....
May 16, 2018•37 min
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have met. The Trump administration is on its way to talk denuclearization and the formal end of a war that’s lasted 65 years. Is it peace in our time? Here to help us cut through the noise and make sense of the news is B.R. Myers. Myers is a professor of international studies at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website i...
May 08, 2018•50 min
