Fort Hood. One of America’s largest military bases is off the long stretch of highway between Dallas and Austin. Its Commander was set to transfer out and take over command of a division at Fort Bliss, but the Army announced on Sept. 1 that wouldn’t be happening. To anyone who’s been following the news, the reasons are pretty clear. At last count, 26 soldiers have died at Fort Hood in 2020. That’s more than have died fighting in Afghanistan this year. Some have been accidents, others suicides. F...
Sep 17, 2020•1 hr 15 min
Ghost guns. Untraceable weapons manufactured in the home. They’ve been with us forever, but they’ve taken on a new menace in the age of 3D printers and digital distribution. Here to walk us through the new phenomenon is Mark A Tallman. Tallman is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security & Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He’s also the author of Ghost Guns . Ghost Guns is an in depth, data driven, and dare I say nerdy deep dive into homemade weapons in the post...
Sep 11, 2020•5 min
On August 4, an explosion levelled a port in the Lebanese city of Beirut. Aging ammonium nitrate was the direct cause, but that the explosive fertilizer had been left for almost a decade in a storage warehouse speaks to the broader problems in Lebanon. A corrupt government, a financial crisis, a protest movement, and suffering citizens. Here to walk us through what’s going on is Blu Fiefer. Fiefer is a Lebanese performance artist who lives in Beirut who believes in signing truth to power. As the...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr
Hello and welcome to the final episode of War College. Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just becoming Angry Planet. From time to time we record things that, for whatever reason, don’t quite work. Sometimes the audio is bad. Sometimes the news cycle destroys the story. Sometimes the the very famous, big name podcast host you have on as a guest is clearly drunk and loses his end of the audio. Sometimes you find out the guest is a CIA agent who never set foot in the country he’s talking...
Aug 28, 2020•35 min
Great powers don’t always go great together, often viewing each other as rivals, if not enemies. After the Cold War, the United States was viewed as the last superpower standing. But not only has Russia and its nuclear arsenal stubbornly refused to go away, China has kept on rising. Now, people at the highest levels of government are trying to figure out whether China and the United States can play nice together, but whether the 21st will be the Chinese Century. Joining us to help understand the...
Aug 26, 2020•33 min
Many people may not realize, but Turkey is a relatively new country--just shy of 100 years old. It was created as a republic out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, largely by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who stuck around as president until 1938. Since then there have been elected governments, military coups and now a -- well, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reshaped the country in his own likeness - or at least how he likes. To help us make sense of it all, we’ve invited Andrew Finkel onto...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 1 min
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, the CHAZ, the CHOP. It had many names, but from about June 8 to July 1, protesters occupied a portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle Washington. A utopia to some, a nightmare to others, the CHAZ became a symbol to the left and the right. The reality on the ground, as is always the case, is far more complicated. With us today to talk about that messy reality is Nikki West. West is a freelance journalist and former Congressional staffer who lives...
Aug 13, 2020•56 min
A few weeks ago, two nuclear-armed neighbors got into a fistfight. Actually, there were some clubs and other handheld weapons, too. It was bizarre and people died, more than 20 on the Indian side. The Chinese have been more coy about their numbers. To get a grip on what happened and what it means for the future, we have Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times on the show. Abi-Habib is a South Asia correspondent who is based in India’s capital of Delhi. Recorded 7/22/20 India’s army focus How the b...
Aug 05, 2020•36 min
If there’s one thing that’s always changing, it’s history. And no, we’re not talking about the Confederacy today. We’re back to one of our favorite subjects: Russia. Under the Soviet regime, history was malleable. Events appeared or disappeared like characters in a play. Stalin was a savior, he was a devil. It was all in the telling. But that urge to rewrite history goes way back in Russia, and he who controls the past controls the future, as they say. Joining us today is friend of the show Mark...
Jul 29, 2020•54 min
This episode is a special double feature. We here at War College think that the deployment of Federal officers to American cities is one of the most important stories of 2020 and we booked two different guests to discuss it. First, we speak with Robert Evans. Evans is a conflict journalist whose work has appeared in Bellingcat. His most recent article there is What You Need to Know About the Battle of Portland and is required reading on this topic. He’s also the host of the Behind the Bastards p...
Jul 24, 2020•2 hr 47 min
Afghanistan. U.S. troops have been leaving for years, fast, then slowly, then fast again. There is some kind of peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, but it doesn’t involve peace. The Afghan government isn’t even a party to it. Russia—which lost its own war in Afghanistan a generation ago--may have been paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops. Soon, though, Afghanistan will ostensibly be on its own again. What’s next, aside from more war, of course. To help us understand all of th...
Jul 22, 2020•36 min
Last week The Daily Beast broke some bizarre news. Several news outlets, including The Washington Examiner, RealClear Markets, and The National Interest , had been running op-eds of journalists that did not exist. AI generated photos attached to profiles and credentials that, once scrutinized, collapsed. It was a massive effort at digital propaganda and questions still remain about its provenance and purpose. Here to explain just what is going on is Marc Owen Jones. Jones is an assistant profess...
Jul 15, 2020•57 min
Cocaine is the second most popular illicit drug in the world and it’s controlled by a black market regulated by violence. As America’s drug war edges close to its fiftieth birthday, there is no end in sight, the conflicts it fuels have expanded to an unprecedented scale and cocaine remains incredibly profitable. Here to talk to us about cartels and cocaine is Toby Muse. Muse is a journalist and documentarian whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, and CNN. He’s just publishe...
Jul 08, 2020•1 hr 7 min
This week we’re joined by P.W. Singer, co-author of Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Stray thoughts on the Bonus Army. The future of policing might be AI and that’s terrifying. Domestic terrorism is about to get even weirder than it already is. War has already changed. 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 Face...
Jul 03, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Elisabeth Braw is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London. RUSI is the oldest defense think tank in the world and Braw leads its Modern Deterrence program. She’s also a columnist at Foreign Policy and the host of the On the Cusp podcast. Welcoming back Jason Fields to the fold What a difference training makes Europe’s different policing styles The darkside of European policing A brief history of the Stasi You can listen to...
Jun 26, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Our guest this week is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and the author of the new book On Obedience: Contrasting Philosophies for the Military Citizenry and Community . What obedience means When civil disobedience is warranted The difference between difference and obedience The civl-mil divide How to re-negotiate the social contract Misreading “A Few Good Men” You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Our guest today is Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is a historian and author best known for Nixonland : The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America . He’s also written the forthcoming Reaganland: America’s Right Turn . This is more WTO in 1999 than it is 1968 Why we don’t remember Newark Is the press doing better this time? The Jimmy Carter Crisis. How the Presidency shapes the American people. Defining Fascism You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RS...
Jun 05, 2020•1 hr
The neo-Nazi movement can’t keep it together. After a series of high profile outings, murders, conspiracy charges, and other assorted run-ins with authorities, the leadership of the Neo-Nazi movement has gotten younger, more online, and more extreme. Here to walk us through this today is Zaron Burnett. Burnett is an investigative journalist and longform features writer based in Los Angeles. He covers culture, politics, race, and other perplexing mysteries for MEL Magazine. You can listen to War ...
May 29, 2020•53 min
Bellingcat’s Giancarlo Fiorella is here to walk us through what may go down in history as the dumbest attempted coup of all time. On May 3, American mercenaries and Venezuelan exiles attempted to enter the country with the goal of overthrowing the Maduro regime. It didn’t go well. The Associated Press busted your coup but you went ahead anyway? What the hell is Silvercorp USA? A contract is great, but it’s not the same as paycheck. Who brings an Airsoft rifle to a warzone? Rember Óscar Alberto P...
May 18, 2020•52 min
Ecoterrorism isn’t a word you hear a lot these days and it’s usually associated with groups like Greenpeace. That might be changing. In 2011, a biotechnology researcher was shot and killed in Mexico. A group called ITS took credit. "We have said it before, we act without any compassion in the feral defense of Wild Nature," reads the group’s manifesto. Is the new generation of activists using violence to save the planet or satisfy a darker, more nihilist urge? You can listen to War College on iTu...
May 09, 2020•1 hr 5 min
This week on War College, producer Kevin Knodell is back in the states after an extended stay in Iraq. He walks us through his journey and the impact of the pandemic on the Middle East. 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/ ; and on Twitter: @War_College . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted o...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr
As I keep saying, war has changed. It’s the recent theme of War College. And it’s not just conflict, but the way people cover conflict. Increasingly, journalists and researchers are using open source intelligence, social media, and academic disciplines such as history and anthropology to explain the complicated conflicts of the modern world. One of the groups doing that is Silah Report. “Silah Report is a non-commercial research project exploring contemporary and historical small arms & ligh...
Apr 13, 2020•55 min
War is about logistics. “An army marches on its stomach,” the idiom goes. Well, a populace can’t survive without water. One water station in Northeast Syria is the heart of a growing conflict between Turkish backed rebels and the local Kurdish population. As war rages in Syria and the COVID-19 pandemic begins, water is more important than ever. Here to help us figure that out is Kimberly Westenhiser. Westenhiser is a journalist, photographer and artist. Her work has appeared at The Seattle...
Mar 28, 2020•29 min
This week we're taking a moment to work through our fear, panic, and axiety. 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/ ; and on Twitter: @War_College . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 21, 2020•56 min
War. War never changes. Except … that’s not exactly true is it? I’d argue that war has changed demonstrably in the past two decades. It’s gotten longer, somehow less deadly, and far weirder. Also. Despite America being engaged in multiple conflicts on multiple continents … Americans are paying less attention to foreign military engagements than ever before. The current international situation, I’d say, is a bit of an anomaly. Worse, the country is fractured in a way that can be hard to understan...
Mar 13, 2020•47 min
Space Force. It’s here. It’s the newest branch of the U.S. military and it’s got it’s own uniforms and a snazzy new patch that looks a lot like the emblem for the United Federation of Planets. But it’s only got one member at the moment and what, exactly, is it doing? Here to help us figure out what’s going on is Joseph Trevithick of The War Zone. 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...
Mar 04, 2020•40 min
In the closing days of World War II, the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and fire bombs on the city of Dresden. It was not, strictly, only a military target and the story of the bombing has captured the imagination of everyone who survived it and those who study the war. One of those people is Sinclair McKay. McKay is a literary critic for the Telegraph and The Spectator in the UK. His latest book is The Fire and Darkness: ...
Feb 21, 2020•44 min
From the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to, probably, New START, all the old treaties are failing. Nuclear weapons are back in the public consciousness in a big way and old Cold War ideas that we once thought relegated to the dustbin of history are back. One of those are so-called low yield nuclear weapons. The U.S. Navy recently fielded some of these SLBMs for the first time on its nuclear capable submarines. Are these weapons actually a game changer? When it comes to nukes, what’s th...
Feb 14, 2020•35 min
There’s a battle raging for the future of the internet. No, it has nothing to do with net neutrality or broadband access. This is about 5G, the shadowy world of global intelligence agencies, and a telecom giant with $108 billion in revenue that most Americans haven’t heard of. The company is Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer known the world over for its cell phones. It also makes radio arrays and is building 5G infrastructure all across the planet. Recently, the UK announced it would allow Huawei l...
Feb 03, 2020•25 min
Iraq. Since October of last year, a protest movement has taken hold of the country. After 16 years of conflict, Iraq is tired. Its people want political and economic reforms. America didn’t pay attention. Until, that was, a militia stormed an embassy, America killed an Iranian General, and tensions between the U.S. and Iran flared. For a moment, the whole world paid attention. They should keep paying attention. Here to explain why is Rasha Al Aqeedi. Rasha is from the Iraqi city of Mosul. She’s ...
Jan 24, 2020•46 min
