Yemen. Saudi Arabia. Iran. Syria. These are the countries that cross most of our minds when we think of the Middle East, but there’s an important actor in the region that we almost never hear about--Oman. Next door to Yemen and Saudi Arabia and across the gulf from Iran, Oman sits in the middle of instability and war. Yet it’s politically and economically stable, friendly to the West, and fends off Islamic extremism with ease. What’s its secret? This week on War College, Tom Orderman joins us to...
Feb 06, 2018•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 , Stitc...
Jan 29, 2018•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Without America’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency there would be no internet, no GPS, no M16, and no Agent Orange. The mysterious group of scientists and soldiers created much of today’s military and civilian technology, but the average citizen doesn’t know much about them. That’s by design. This week on War College, Sharon Weinberger— the executive editor Foreign Policy —reveals the hidden world of the Pentagon’s mad scientists.The agency is the subject of her book Imagineers of War: T...
Jan 22, 2018•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Pentagon always wants more money and it usually gets its way. Between sequestration and the War on Terror, America’s military often feels like it’s stretched thin. The Navy says it needs more sailors to prevent disaster, U.S. nukes need upkeep to stay safe, and the Special Operations Forces need more and more support to do their job. Yet the American military outspends every other major military power on the planet and watch dogs constantly complain of waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon...
Jan 16, 2018•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been a while since the Air Force built a new bomber. In fact, it’s still flying an aircraft that’s 60 years old, the B-52. The more recent B-1 and B-2 bombers were beset by problems during their development and construction, and are now long in the tooth themselves. So, here comes the B-21, still in its development stage. In this episode, we talk with retired Air Force General David A. Deptula about what the new plane’s mission and capabilities will be. You can listen to War College on iTun...
Jan 08, 2018•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a blast from the past this week and Jason and Matthew get ready for 2018. Here's what we said back then: From Star Wars to Battlestar Galactica, few battlefields are as fought over in pop-culture as space. Which makes sense. Since the end of World War Two, people have looked to the stars as the next great frontier of both exploration and warfare. For the United States, the Space Race was about both prestige and gaining an advantage over its Cold War enemies. And since the Soviet Union launc...
Jan 02, 2018•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast ICYMI: This holiday week we're re-running the first episode of the new era! We'll be back after the new year. The Weimar Republic was doomed from the start. World War I left Germany in a precarious position. The Treaty of Versailles ended outright aggression but it also left the German economy crippled and saddled its people with a government they never quite believed in. Worse, it stipulated that Germany take full responsibility for the most devastating war in human history. This week on War Co...
Dec 26, 2017•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Marty Skovlund Jr. first went to Afghanistan as an Army Ranger. This year he returned as a journalist. His reports offer a sharp contrast to the main narrative about a place that’s been at war for decades. He sees some hope in the form of Special Operations forces, along with well-trained commandos and police units. But are these really signs of peace to come? Check out Skovlund’s excellent reporting on the War in Afghanistan over at Task and Purpose . You can listen to War College on iTunes , S...
Dec 18, 2017•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast War. War has changed. Anyone can keep up to date with the latest conflict on Twitter. Facebook is a great place to watch the propaganda game of entire countries unfold. YouTube amplifies previously marginalized conspiracy theories to millions. Everything is different now. This week on War College, we talk to author and journalist David Patrikarakos about his new book War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century. You can listen to War College on iTunes...
Dec 12, 2017•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast On a Summer day in 1346, a small army of upstart British peasants cut the heart out of the French aristocracy. That’s the story anyway. The Battle of Crécy was one of the most important of the Hundred Years War. A British army led by Edward III faced an overwhelming French force backed by Genoese crossbowmen. The French outnumbered the British two to one, had the initiative, and attacked in its own territory. The British won, killed hundreds of French nobles, and showed the world a new way to go...
Dec 05, 2017•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast As Jason and Matthew sleep off their holiday induced Turkey Comas, War College presents an episode from the early days of the show. Here’s what we said back then— The media in Russia is lively, often entertaining and largely state controlled. Still, an illusion of freedom remains key for the Kremlin to maintain its grasp over a country that spans 11 time zones. In this episode of War College, we look at how Russian president Vladimir Putin crafts his message for both internal and external consum...
Nov 27, 2017•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you just look at the number of warheads, the U.S. nuclear arsenal is a small fraction of the size it was during the Cold War. But is that even the right measure anymore? This week on War College, Reuters’ Scott Paltrow discusses a special report the wire service will release this week. Paltrow’s investigation discovered vast improvements to bombs whose names have stayed the same as their power increased tenfold, and weapons with adjustable yields that could lead to the ultimate temptation—dro...
Nov 20, 2017•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast War is hell and the people who fight often have a hard time coming home. Kevin Lacz didn’t. Lacz is a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served alongside Chris Kyle in the battle of Ramadi. He survived, came home, and thrived. He’s written books, spoken to crowds, and even played himself in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper . This week on War College, Lacz tells us what it’s like to go to war, what it’s like to want to kill people, and how to turn off the warrior when you come home. You can listen to War ...
Nov 13, 2017•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joseph Stalin’s Bolsheviks were atheists. At least in the traditional sense. But that didn’t mean they didn’t believe in prophecy. In fact, it was prophecy that guided their nearly every action. If people would just obey the rules of communism, peace, prosperity, justice and brotherhood would grow from the soil and be mass produced in the factories. So, what happens when a decade passes and the Bolshevik bible has no answers? Blood. You can listen to War College on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Pla...
Nov 06, 2017•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast An ambush killed four U.S. Special Operations soldiers in the North African country of Niger. Before the incident, few Americans had ever heard of Niger and fewer knew American soldiers were fighting and dying on the continent. What were the troops (a mix of Green Berets and support troops) doing there, and who is ultimately responsible for their deaths? This week, War College looks for some answers along with Derek Gannon, a retired Green Beret, and Joseph Trevithick, who’s been studying the fl...
Oct 30, 2017•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Kurds live in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq but have no country to call their own. When they decided to create one for themselves inside Iraq, it didn’t go well. After Iraq's Kurds held an independence referendum—which passed with more than 90 percent of the vote—Baghdad's armed forces moved fast. Its armies and allied Shi'ite militias took the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding oil fields. Within days, the Kurd’s economic engine was gone. At the same time, Kurds in Syria captured Islamic St...
Oct 23, 2017•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tensions between North Korea and the United States are at a fever pitch. The DPRK’s nukes are scary, but once the first missile flies there’s no way to know who might join the fight and how it might end. That’s scarier. So just how bad could it get? Would global nuclear war leave nothing alive but the cockroaches? We talked with Neil Halloran, who has literally done the math. The answer wasn’t what we expected. You can see Halloran’s full analysis in his fantastic animated film: http://www.falle...
Oct 16, 2017•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Barack Obama ordered the U.S. military to directly prepare for climate change. Donald Trump’s White House reversed that policy. So what’s a general to do? Tara Copp, Pentagon bureau chief for Military Times, takes us deep into the five-sided box to tell us what the military is doing to fight what they see as a real threat, not just a political football. With more and more civilians in need of rescue, shipyards sinking below sea level, and Arctic ice breaking up, top brass is taking action now an...
Oct 09, 2017•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes the only way a spy agency can hide a secret is under the brightest of spotlights. This week, we talk with author Josh Dean about how the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology works and about some of its most audacious projects, including the SR-71 Blackbird. According to Dean, though, nothing tops the CIA plan to recover a sunken Soviet submarine from 3-miles deep in the Pacific. Even more than 40 years later, the technology used to do it is nearly state of the art, and the cover...
Oct 02, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast On August 6, 2011, an American Chinook helicopter named Extortion 17 carried 38 people—including 15 members of SEAL Team Six—to an area 40 miles southwest of Kabul. As the helicopter made its final descent to land, a group of insurgents fired an RPG at it. The lucky shot destroyed the helicopter’s rear rotor and the subsequent crash killed everyone on board. It was the greatest loss of life from a single incident in the Afghan war. This week on War College, journalist Ed Darack walks us through ...
Sep 27, 2017•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Party of God, Hezbollah, is reaching out far beyond its Lebanese roots as they work with Iran to spread their joint vision of holy war. Working with money and equipment from Iran, the Shi’ite militia now operates in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The party dedicated to the destruction of the Israel is doing a lot of work in countries east of its target. Don’t get them wrong, Hezbollah still hates Israel and wants to destroy it, but it’s lending its expertise—and soldiers—to faraway battles. This we...
Sep 18, 2017•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast From The Day After to Threads , fiction has long reflected our nuclear fears. Today, Daenerys Targaryen’s flying dragons stand in for B-52 bombers armed with thermonuclear bombs and the ashen corpses of Lannister guards remind us of Hiroshima. This week on War College, nuclear weapons expert Timothy Westmyer talks us through the nuclear metaphors in Game of Thrones . Westmyer is a nuclear security expert with CRDF Global and the host of the Super Critical Podcast —a show that explores pop cultur...
Sep 11, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast The impunity of some of the world’s most frightening men is under threat from people stereotyped as geeks in basements around the world. In the 21st century, well-informed and observant social media addicts have extraordinary powers. Eliot Higgins started watching and reporting on war from the comfort of his living room in 2012. Five years later, he’s using his skills to help the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prosecute war criminals. It’s been a strange journey. This week on War C...
Sep 08, 2017•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast More than 11,000 U.S. soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan right now. U.S. President Donald Trump plans to send 4,000 more. Military advisers are overseeing the war against the Islamic State and American military equipment and expertise helped retake Mosul. Drones launch from bases in Africa and the Middle East to conduct targeted killings against high value targets from Djibouti to Pakistan. U.S. Special Operations Forces operate across the globe in various capacities. Most of these missions ar...
Sep 01, 2017•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Weimar Republic was doomed from the start. World War I left Germany in a precarious position. The Treaty of Versailles ended outright aggression but it also left the German economy crippled and saddled its people with a government they never quite believed in. Worse, it stipulated that Germany take full responsibility for the most devastating war in human history. This week on War College, Jason Fields--the show’s co-creator and digital editor at the Holocaust Museum--returns to walk us thro...
Aug 25, 2017•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast The United State's war in Afghanistan drags on with no end in sight. Worse, the current administration doesn’t have a clear vision of how it wants to proceed in the country. With all options on the table, private military contractor and entrepreneur Erik Prince - the founder of Blackwater - has gone on a lobbying tour around the U.S. pitching his own plan. Prince’s vision for Afghanistan calls for a viceroy to take over the country, drive out the Taliban and exploit the country’s natural resourc...
Aug 18, 2017•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast As tensions grow between the U.S. and North Korea, onlookers have increasingly called on China to intervene. Which makes sense. Beijing is Pyongyang’s biggest trade partner and the two countries have a relationship that stretches back to World War II. But just because China is North Korea’s closest ally doesn’t mean China has control. According to Chinese history expert Adam Cathcart, China’s relationship with the DPRK is complicated. Cathcart lectures about China and Chinese history at Leeds Un...
Aug 10, 2017•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast After thousands of American lives, literally billions of dollars and more than 15 years, the U.S. can’t seem to quit its longest war in Afghanistan. With no end in sight, no word on strategy from the White House and the NATO-backed leader calling for more troops to defend against the Taliban, it might be time to cut and run. Few know this as well as journalist and author Douglas Wissing. He’s spent a lot of time in Afghanistan, written two books on the subject and embedded with U.S. troops on th...
Aug 03, 2017•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Despite some close calls, the United States and Russia never fought in a full-scale conflict during the Cold War. The fear of nuclear Armageddon loomed for decades but never occurred. The world avoided the devastation thanks to the efforts of politicians, spies and soldiers. If not for some special and unexpected relationships across the Iron Curtain, the world may look very different today. This week on War College, author Eva Dillon talks us through her new book, 'Spies in the Family,' and one...
Jul 26, 2017•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast China’s military made international news in early July when it announced the opening of its first overseas military base in Djibouti, a small country in the Horn of Africa. China says the base is simply a logistics building, poised to protect the country’s interests in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It’s an interesting location for a military instillation considering the American military base just four miles away. This week on War College, retired Green Beret Derek Gannon walks us through Ch...
Jul 20, 2017•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
