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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast This week, producer Kevin Knodell walks us through his recent reporting in Iraq. https://coffeeordie.com/american-troops-iraq/ 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....
Jan 17, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Drones are everywhere. Military drones buzz war zones dropping missiles; surveillance drones hover above neighborhoods, looking for anything out of place; even now, commercial drones hide in holiday wrapping, waiting for excited enthusiasts to fly them in a park. As the market for drones has grown, so too has the market for tools to take them down. There’s jamming rifles, spoofing software, and hundreds of other solutions for downing a drone. But what to buy the budding enthusiast? A new report ...
Jan 08, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week the Washington Post published The Afghanistan Papers—a blockbuster piece of reporting that details every little thing about what’s gone wrong with the Afghanistan War. As the war grinds through its second decade, the Afghanistan Papers make clear what many defense reporters, government officials, and soldiers have known for years. The Afghanistan War is a costly, pointless, unwinnable mess. Here to walk us through the Afghanistan Papers and its implications is Craig Whitlock. Whitlock ...
Dec 20, 2019•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Luke Skywalker is a household name. Carl von Clausewitz not so much. Learning about the military—especially about strategy and tactics—is a jargon filled slog. War has a language all its own and for decades, military minds have struggled to find an easy way to teach conflict to the common citizen and aspiring officer alike. Star Wars is that language. That’s the theory behind a new book, Strategy Strikes Back, How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict, which teaches military lessons using ...
Dec 13, 2019•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast We are living on the precipice of a manufacturing revolution. 3D Printing is more than just a hobby your weird rich friends use to make guns, it’s the dawn of a new process of prototype and creation. Additive manufacturing, if you believe the hype, will make it easier to make everything . Including weapons of Mass Destruction. But how real is that threat and how close are we to making chemical weapons at home for fun and profit? Here to help answer that question is Grant Christopher. Grant is a ...
Dec 06, 2019•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for tuning into this special podcast. Last week was a busy one for President Trump and the military. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer was fired. Or did he quit? No, he was fired. Why? Because of how he handled controversy surrounding Navy SEAL and accused War Criminal Eddie Gallagher. That’s … that’s if he was actually fired, which he probably was. Here to help us untangle this mess is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethic...
Nov 27, 2019•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Refugees. People from countries in crisis fleeing oppression and death. America was once a beacon to the world’s tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But things have changed. In the last term of President Barack Obama the U.S. said it would accept 110,000 refugees. That number is now just 18,000. There’s a moral argument here, but also a compelling strategic one. The enemy of my enemy is my friend … but only if you let them be your friend. Here to help us sort this all out is Jo...
Nov 20, 2019•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast If there’s been a recent throughline or theme on this season of War College, it’s that war has changed. And it’s not just conflict, but the way we cover conflict. Increasingly, people are using open source intelligence and social media to study and report on the changing nature of conflict. Calbre Obscura is one of those people. He’s an independent arms researcher interested in non-state groups in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He is extremely online, and he knows more about AK variant...
Nov 11, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
