General David H. Petraeus, US Army (Ret.)

General David H. Petraeus is a retired United States Army general and a prominent commentator on contemporary security issues, military developments and global affairs, widely respected as a leading warrior intellectual.

The General graduated with distinction from the US Military Academy and earned a PhD from Princeton University. He served in the US Army for thirty-seven years, concluding his time in uniform with six consecutive commands as general officer, five of which were in combat, including command of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. He then served as the director of the CIA. 

The General has held academic appointments at six universities and is a senior fellow and lecturer at Yale University. He is currently a partner in a major investment firm and chairs that firm’s Global Institute.

The General is also a brilliant author. His latest book, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine released at the end of 2023 and is a must read. He co-wrote it with noted biographer and historian Andrew Roberts. It’s published by Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins. You can pick up a copy wherever you like to buy your books.

On this episode, General Petraeus discusses:

• Israel’s war against Hamas and why Gaza poses a challenging situation more so than any other urban operation since the end of 1945
• The release of Israeli hostages
• The four tasks of strategic leadership
• How lessons of war are institutionalized
• The danger of lack of Western resolve on the world stage
• How what happens in one part of the world reverberates in another (e.g., if you have a red line in Syria over use of chemical weapons and it turns out not be a red line, that undermines deterrence in the Indo-Pacific)
• The importance of soldier morale
• Warfare of the future and the technology he’s following.

As for the General’s very creative answer to where he’d go if given a one way ticket, please listen to our interview with him on episode 268 from August 2022.