Observers watched the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War closely, searching for indicators of the character of warfare on tomorrow's battlefields. The lessons extracted have covered advanced technology and unmanned platforms, proxy dynamics, the ongoing relevance of armor, and more. But some of the most important lessons have received much less attention. They center around the increasingly unavoidable importance of combat in cities and are drawn principally from the battle for the city of Shusha—a fight...
Nov 01, 2023•44 min
When Hamas fighters conducted a large-scale and deadly attack against Israel and its people on October 7, what was the group aiming to achieve? What were its strategic objectives? And what sort of Israeli response was it planning for? On this episode, John Amble speaks to Dr. Michele Groppi, a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. Hamas's brutal attacks might have been tactically successful, but as Michele argues, they also might have actually exceeded what the gro...
Oct 23, 2023•39 min
As Israeli ground forces mobilize for what at this point appears to be a looming battle in Gaza to destroy Hamas military capability, this episode looks ahead at what form that battle will take. Liam Collins and John Spencer, two former Army officers with a a variety of combat experience and the authors of a book on urban warfare, join John Amble to explore the importance of employing combined arms—infantry, tanks, artillery, engineers, and other capabilities—when operating in urban areas like t...
Oct 18, 2023•39 min
Thirty years ago this week—on October 3, 1993—US special operations forces launched a mission in Mogadishu. It was part of Operation Gothic Serpent, which was aimed at capturing Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The mission was intended to be of a short duration. But things changed when, shortly after members of Task Force Ranger launched from their base, fighters on the ground began firing on US aircraft. The battle that ensued—which would later become the subject of journalist Mark Bowden’s...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 20 min
While Western leaders, media, and institutions have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its conduct of the ongoing war—characterizing it as a brutal act of naked aggression—to many Russians, their military forces are heroes, protecting the Russian nation, its place in the world, and its very identity. What explains this extraordinarily different perspective? This episode features a discussion with Dr. Jade McGlynn, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College L...
Sep 20, 2023•46 min
The decisions by the governments of Sweden and Finland to apply to join NATO marked a major departure from both countries' longstanding policies of nonalignment. But how, specifically, will it affect these countries’ defense capabilities—and those of NATO? How much needs to be done to achieve interoperability? And most fundamentally, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine clearly triggered these decisions, why did both countries make this major decision at the particular moment they did? To unpack t...
Aug 24, 2023•39 min
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, the world has seen firsthand evidence of the threat posed by the revanchist state. Among those who perceive this threat most acutely are the three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The fundamental facts of these states’ existence—their comparatively small size, proximity to Russia, and position on the northeastern flank of the NATO alliance—combine to make the threat both direct and real. But what can NATO do to deter Russian military...
Aug 10, 2023•33 min
This episode of the MWI Podcast features a conversation with August Cole, coauthor of a new book called Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution . It’s a techno-thriller and a work of fiction, but it is also based on deep research and allows readers to examine the types of technologies that will increasingly characterize the future—from everyday life to the conduct of war. In fact, the seemingly remarkable technologies featured in the book's plot are already emerging and in many cases alr...
Jul 28, 2023•35 min
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, one of its first targets was the city of Mariupol. Despite being outnumbered by—and less well equipped than—their adversaries, Ukrainian defenders held out for three months. As the Russian siege of the city intensified, Ukrainian forces defended a shrinking perimeter with a command post in the Azovstal steel plant. One of those Ukrainian defenders was Sergeant Arseniy Fedosiuk. MWI's John Spencer had the opportunity to speak to him about his experien...
Jul 18, 2023•29 min
When Yevgeny Prighozin, the head of the Wagner Group, released a video on June 23 that criticized Russian leaders' management of the war in Ukraine, it was the first in a series of extraordinary events that played out with the world watching. One of those people watching closely as the private military company's forces entered the city of Rostov-on-Don and began an advance toward Moscow was retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. A former commanding general of US Army Europe, he joins this episod...
Jun 29, 2023•25 min
In this episode, Paul Lushenko joins to discuss armed drones—in particular the impact their proliferation will have on global order. That's the subject of a new book for which he was a coeditor. Why do states—and nonstate actors—choose to use armed drones as weapons of war? How does that decision affect these actors' international reputations? How do questions of law and morality intersect when it comes to drones? And beyond impacting the character of warfare, to what extent will armed, networke...
Jun 14, 2023•1 hr 3 min
When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, its ground forces were largely built around the battalion tactical group. Fifteen months on, and that organizational structure has been dramatically changed. Why? And what explains other examples of evolving Russian tactics? Dr. Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, joins this episode to address these questions and examine these adaptations. He recently coauthored a report , based on close and firsth...
May 31, 2023•46 min
Turkey is in the middle of a presidential election, the closest challenge to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his twenty years in power. This offers an opportunity for a broad survey of the evolution of Turkish foreign policy, statecraft, and strategy during those two decades and an exploration of how these might continue to evolve going forward. This episode features a discussion with Dr. Ziya Meral, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and specialist in Turkish foreign polic...
May 17, 2023•48 min
How will the rapid pace of advancement in the fields of neuroscience and neurotechnology impact the changing character of warfare? Will they lead to the human brain becoming a battlespace as new scientific breakthroughs and novel technologies are weaponized? This episode features a discussion with a guest who argues that a convergence between neuroscience and the conduct of war is already occurring. Dr. James Giordano is the chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University and c...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Would Patton be an effective battlefield commander today? Do the characteristics of successful commanders generally remain constant over time? Or do they evolve alongside—and in response to—the changing character of warfare? And if they do change, what traits will commanders need on the battlefields of today and tomorrow? Dr. Anthony King, the author of the book Command: The Twenty-First-Century General , joins this episode to discuss these questions and more.
Apr 20, 2023•36 min
Arctic geopolitics are characterized by features that set the region apart from others. Eveything from governance structures to the way Arctic states engage with one another to the way they tackle shared challenges and address disputes—these all look different in the Arctic than elsewhere. But Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine led to a disruption in Arctic engagement, with the seven other Arctic states suspending participation in Arctic Council activities for the duration of Russia's chairmanshi...
Apr 08, 2023•46 min
In this episode, John Amble speaks with Chris Dougherty of the Center for a New American Security. He and his colleagues have conducted a wargame that sought to identify what strategic options the United States and Taiwan have to deter a particular fait accompli move by China against Taiwan. What they concluded was that the best option is something they describe as “the poison frog strategy.” Listen as he describes what that entails, and why it's the most viable means of implementing deterrence ...
Mar 23, 2023•59 min
After twenty years of America’s post-9/11 wars and the US military’s struggle to build capable and effective security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is an important discussion taking place about what role security force assistance should play for the United States in the very different strategic environment that is taking shape. Will it be a mission that we'll be required to do in order to compete with Russia and China? Or will it become tangential to our preparations for large-scale comb...
Mar 09, 2023•56 min
One year ago this week, Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Twelve months on, how should we think about the way the war has taken shape? What lessons about modern war should we be learning? What assumptions about the modern battlefield has the conflict challenged, and what assumptions has it reinforced? And what features will characterize the war in the months ahead? In this episode, John Amble is joined by retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan. With decades of military and leadership expe...
Feb 23, 2023•47 min
This episode features a conversation with MWI's chair of urban warfare studies, John Spencer. A leading expert on urban warfare and the coauthor of the book Understanding Urban Warfare , his deep practical experience and scholarship on both historical and modern cases of urban warfare make him the ideal guest to address a range of important questions. Are cities uniquely challenging for military forces? Why? What steps can be taken to achieve a higher level of preparedness for those challenges? ...
Feb 08, 2023•51 min
In this episode, John Amble speaks to Sandor Fabian about a very specific approach to national defense: resistance. The war in Ukraine has made clear that comparatively small states can be vulnerable to the threat of aggression from larger neighbors. Resistance, Sandor argues, is the most viable means of defense for these states. But effectively embracing it as a strategic approach would require dramatic changes in force structure, training, equipment, doctrine, and more. And if small US allies ...
Jan 25, 2023•57 min
Ukrainian forces have been praised for their innovation efforts during their ongoing war with Russia, particularly with regard to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. But what has that innovation actually looked like? Is it principally about repurposing equipment, like commercial quadcopters, or is it more a function of implementation, like experimenting with new tactics? And how has Russian forces' own innovation compared? Most importantly, what effect has innovation had on battlefield outcomes...
Jan 15, 2023•43 min
We're thrilled to announce a new podcast, launched in partnership with West Point's Department of Social Sciences, called Social Science of War . Each episode will leverage a unique strength of the department—pairing deep practical experience with leading scholarship—to tackle subjects of importance to the Army. In this episode, John Amble speaks briefly to Colonel Heidi Demarest, acting head of the Department of Social Sciences, and Major Kyle Atwell, who teaches in the department and will serv...
Dec 15, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Since the middle of September, when an Iranian woman died after being detained in Tehran for improperly wearing her headscarf, protests have gripped the country. But what sets them apart from previous periods of demonstrations against the Iranian regime? Will that regime manage to weather the storm and bring the protests to an end as it has in the past? And what are the possible outcomes if the movement not only maintains its momentum but gathers strength? Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Prog...
Dec 01, 2022•47 min
This episode examines how special operations forces are integrating high-tech tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize their operations. Dr. Richard Shultz of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Gen. Richard Clarke, commander of US Special Operations Command, join the podcast to trace the history of US special operations forces' efforts in Iraq to adapt to the counterterrorism fight there, explain how these forces made use of data to enable a remarkably rapid ...
Nov 16, 2022•47 min
The recent death of Ayman al-Zawahiri marks a rare inflection point for a terrorist organization that has had just two leaders in the more than three decades of its existence. Forecasting its future trajectory—and developing counterterrorism policy—will depend on what type of leader emerges as Zawahiri's successor. Dr. Tricia Bacon and Dr. Elizabeth Grimm are the authors of a new book, Terror in Transition: Leadership and Succession in Terrorist Organizations . They join this episode to describe...
Nov 02, 2022•44 min
How are demographic and economic shifts increasing the importance of urban centers around the globe? What does this mean for military forces? To what extent do the local politics of a city complicate military operations there—specifically irregular warfare activities? When conflict between an insurgency and government forces enters a city, does the terrain inherently favor one side over the other? This special episode addresses these questions as it brings together two of the Modern War Institut...
Oct 21, 2022•49 min
As the US Space Force nears its third birthday, John Amble is joined by Dr. Moriba Jah on this episode to explore just how crowded the space domain is—especially with the surprising amount of detritus created over more than six decades of the Space Age. Dr. Jah is an aerospace engineer who has worked for NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory. He is now an associate professor at the University of Texas, where he monitors space and works to track thousands of objects—a number that continues t...
Oct 06, 2022•22 min
The term "cohesion" features prominently in discussions of military effectiveness, especially at the small-unit level. We all know intuitively what it means, but understanding how to develop and nurture it in practice is a challenge. That's even more true as technological advancement continues to make constant connectivity with the outside world easier, even from a battlefield. How do soldiers' stresses from home impact cohesion? What about when soldiers no longer process shared traumatic experi...
Sep 08, 2022•50 min
This episode features a discussion with Simon Akam, author of the book The Changing of the Guard: The British Army Since 9/11 . The book tells the story of nearly two decades of the service's experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Critical of the British Army's leadership at times, it aims to jumpstart an honest conversation about the those wars, the service's performance in them, the relationship between the UK military and the British people, and more. It's an insightful, thought-provoking conve...
Aug 26, 2022•46 min
