We’ve talked a lot on this program about electronic intelligence—the amazing stuff you can do with satellites, user generated content and sophisticated software. Nice. But we’ve left out all the men and women who still do work on the ground, all over the world. Paul Kolbe is here to remind us about human intelligence and the role it plays. Kolbe is a CIA veteran, having worked in the directorate of operations for 25 years before moving on to private industry. He’s currently director of the Intel...
Dec 05, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reign has been defined by constant conflict. From Chechnya to Ukraine and many other wars in between, Putin’s Russia has constantly been pushing at its borders and sending troops abroad. How have those wars shaped Russia and the world? And what does it all have to do with Ukraine? That’s the subject of the new book Putin’s Wars . Its author is here with us today. Its friend of the show: Mark Galeotti. Galeotti is a public policy fellow at the Wilson Center in W...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast We’re running our Thanksgiving break episode a week early. We’ll be back next week to talk with Mark Galeotti about Russia, Kherson, and the missiles that just hit Poland. This week, we’re going far back into our past. It’s a Timothy Snyder double feature. Both of these episodes are from our “War College” days and feature the famous historian at two different points in his journey to the cable news pundit we feel (well, I feel) weirdly ambivalent towards today. The first is from 2015, and is a d...
Nov 17, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today it’s all about the bomb. Nuclear weapons are back in a big way and everything about the Cold War suddenly feels very fresh. Nukes are strange things. They’ve only been used twice and the language and knowledge around them can often feel arcane, almost religious. There’s all these little rituals in nuclear space. We’re gonna talk about one of those rituals today—the Nuclear Posture Review. Once in every U.S. presidential administration, the nuclear curtain is withdrawn and we get a gl...
Nov 11, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast I’m sorry, we have to talk about Elon Musk one more time. Or, as Jason said. “Twitter: Now With More Musk!” But seriously. This episode is about more than Musk. It’s about how conflict has gotten … weird. We start with a conversation about a new podcast about the weird future of war. Then we asked one question about Musk and things spiraled out of control. Has conflict gotten …weirder? Have the lines gotten blurrier? Why are cartoon Shiba Inu dogs yelling at Russian officials online? Why is the ...
Nov 04, 2022•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we’re talking about Elon Musk — not because we want to, but because we have to. As we all know, the man is rich. I don’t mean merely wealthy, I mean he could pay off a good portion of the national deficit. He’s also not shy, to the point where he likes to tell entire countries what to do. They may not do it, but they’re forced to react. Bloomberg’s Iain Marlow, who covers diplomacy, has written a great piece about what Musk is up to now. Musk Tweets Complicate US Diplomacy From Ukraine to ...
Oct 27, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alt Weeklies are an important part of America’s media landscape. It’s local reporting from people with a different point of view and different goals. If you’re mad at mainstream narratives you could do worse than picking up, say, the Inlander out of the Pacific Northwest. If you want to know what’s really going on there, how worried you should be about budding extremist movements, and what role politicians are playing in our current various crises, it’s a good place to start. With us today is Da...
Oct 20, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast In an attempt to shore up its rapidly crumbling position in Ukraine, Moscow has partially mobilized the people. In response, many of those people are fleeing. But where can they go? Russia has spent the last 100 years bullying, invading, and killing its immediate neighbors. Places like Georgia are seeing a huge influx of Russian military aged males. How do the Georgians feel about this? It’s complicated. With us today to talk about this is James Jackson. Jackson is a freelance journalist in Germ...
Oct 13, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast There’s unrest in Iran right now. People have taken to the streets, the internet has been restricted for “security reasons” authorities say, and there’s been clashes with police. This all started after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by Iranian moral police. She died while in custody. Her death and the circumstances around it kicked off the current protests, but the unrest is part of a long continuum of uprising and suppression in Iran that’s as old as the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Wi...
Oct 06, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast The vast majority of Chinese people come from a single ethnic group—the Han. So what’s life like for the millions of people who aren’t Han? Tough, it’s fair to say. Ask any Tibetan. But one group has been singled out for particular persecution, the Uyghurs. There are about 12 million Uyghurs, they mostly live in a province called Xinjiang and mostly Muslim. And the Chinese appear to be trying to wipe out at least their culture. Many countries have condemned the Chinese for this, but the United N...
Sep 26, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast What seemed unthinkable a year ago has come to pass. Ukraine has started its counter offensive and in a shockingly short amount of time has pushed Russia out of much of its territory. The Russian military appears to be collapsing with a rapidity that is shocking pretty much everyone. Well, maybe not everyone . People who’ve been paying attention to the minutiae of the war aren’t as surprised as the rest of us. That’s kind of been a pattern in coverage and punditry of Russia’s invasion. One of th...
Sep 19, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast This will be the last episode we do on Afghanistan for a bit. We wanted to give the final word to a U.S. Marine who served there. We’re now a year out from the fall of Kabul and what looks like the end of America’s uniformed involvement in Afghanistan. There are as many as 70,000 Afghans who helped the United States during the war who are still looking to get out. Elliot Ackerman, who served in the region as a Marine and as a CIA operative, was trying to help as the last flights were taking off ...
Sep 07, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been a year since the U.S. left Afghanistan in disarray. We’ve spoken to a number of people who have been to Afghanistan over the years on this show. That includes journalists who walked into Kabul with the Taliban the first time, in 1996, soldiers who fought in Afghanistan throughout the war, and more recently, a man who was supposed to be fighting corruption but found it to be worse than a losing battle. Today, NPR’s Steve Inskeep joins us. He recently visited Afghanistan and spent some t...
Aug 31, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dissent. It’s a word people don’t like to hear, especially coming from the military. But it’s also a vitally important component of any vibrant democracy. Dissent, especially informed dissent, can pull us back from the brink and help us make better choices. We are one year out from the end of America’s direct involvement in Afghanistan and, after two decades of war, it’s time to start listening to the dissenters. That’s what the new book Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s Mis...
Aug 25, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast To say there are widespread reports of abuses by Russian troops in Ukraine is to undersell it. There have been hundreds and hundreds of cases claiming rape, torture, and murder. Last week, a video of the torture and execution of a Ukrainian soldier at the hands of Russian soldiers shocked the world. We call these things war crimes and crimes against humanity. But that’s a relatively new concept. Today we’re going to talk about the Nuremberg Trials, which took some vague ideals and put them into ...
Aug 12, 2022•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast WNBA star Britney Griner is imprisoned in Russia and, apparently, the U.S. is making Russia an incredible offer to get her out. Last week Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that America had “put a substantial proposal on the table.” That proposal? The return to Russia of convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout. This so-called Merchant of Death’s story is an amazing one. It even inspired a 2005 Nicolas Cage movie, some six years before Bout’s arrest. With us today to talk about ...
Aug 05, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Imagine being trapped below ground for weeks, surrounded by soldiers, bombs dropping just a few feet above your head. Food is scarce, rats are everywhere. Is survival possible? And what would it even look like? A trip back home, or to a Russian prison? That was the situation during the siege of the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine. Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times has put together a comprehensive look at the siege, which is being called Ukraine’s Alamo and he’s joining us to...
Jul 29, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast I think we can all assume why Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia recently. In fact, we just did a show on why the world can’t quit Saudi oil. But it’s interesting to pull apart the other part of his journey — to Israel and, very briefly, the Palestinian Authority. Joining us to do just that is independent journalist Noga Tarnopolsky. She’s written for everyone from the New York Times to the LA Times, as well as many other international outlets. So, why visit Israel and why now? Was he just in the ne...
Jul 22, 2022•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re digging into the archives one more time to bring you two episodes from the early days of the show. They’re all about Russia and Ukraine. I chose these two because I think they give a unique view of the origins of the war and reflect how much our thinking on Russia has changed since its “official” invasion in February of 2022. We’ll be back next week with a brand new episode. Stay safe until then. Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry pl...
Jul 15, 2022•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast This one is a blast from the past. Jason is on Vacation and Matthew is going in for a minor surgery so we're resurrecting some old episodes. Here's what we said five years ago when this first aired: "Antifa and white nationalists clash in the streets. Students on college campuses patrol the sidewalks armed with bats. A man in Portland stabbed several people on a bus and another in Virginia opened fire on Republican legislators on a baseball field. This week on War College, Joe Young – college pr...
Jul 08, 2022•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re a fan of this show, you’ve probably seen and read a lot of things about the war in Ukraine. But you’ve never seen anything quite like the new Popular Front documentary Frontline Hooligan . Today’s guest is the creator of that documentary. He’s been on the show many times. You know him. Jake Hanrahan. He’s an independent journalist and the host of Popular Front , a podcast that focuses on the niche details of modern warfare and under-reported conflict. Today we’re gonna talk about Front...
Jul 01, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war in Ukraine grinds on. As the West’s attention wanes, Ukrainians fight for their lives and freedom. They need more of everything. Weapons, ammunition, supplies, people. Today we have various stories from the war, as told by returning guest Danny Gold. Gold is a writer and producer who focuses on crime and conflict. He’s also a reluctant podcaster who co-hosts the excellent Underworld Podcast. Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry plane...
Jun 27, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast The January 6th committee has gone public with its hearings and once again the Proud Boys are in the news. Charges against 5 members of the group, including its leader, Enrique Tarrio have been superseded. Now, we’re talking about straight up sedition. So, it’s time to look again at what this group — and related groups — did on January 6, and just how dangerous they really are. We’ll also talk about accelerationism, what it is and what accelerationists want. Joining us are two people who are fol...
Jun 17, 2022•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast With America’s retreat from Afghanistan still fresh, it’s popular for politicians and pundits to bemoan America’s inability to fight and win a war. That line ignores an important bit of recent history we’ve memory-holed—the war against he Islamic State. America didn’t fight that war alone, however. Far from it. An international coalition of trained soldiers and volunteer troops recognized a horrifying threat and came together to defeat it. As terrifying as the Islamic State is, the successful ca...
Jun 10, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Conspiracy Theories are part of the foundation of the United States. Our first strong third party, the Anti-Masonic party, had its roots in the belief in a conspiracy theory. Years later the John Birch society shaped American politics. Things feel different now. Lies are doing something to the United States that no foreign enemy has been able to achieve: Shredding it. The bizarre QAnon, imaginary purple elephant and, far more dangerous, the big lie of a stolen election. It’s time to talk about o...
May 26, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Right now, Russia is learning a lesson as old as combat, morale is at the center of any fighting force. How does it change things when you can pick up your cell phone and call your mom to share your experiences, or even complain about your commander? How do you build a band of brothers when home is just a phone call away? Colonel John Spencer asked himself these questions and wrote a book about it called Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War. Spencer is the c...
May 19, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s episode is brought to you by Auroch Digital, makers of many fine video games including the one we’re here to talk about today: Ogre. For almost fifty years, it has terrorized our future. The Ogre. A massive AI-controlled tank hell bent on the destruction of the human race. Ogre. That’s both the name of the game and the name of the game’s strongest unit. First published in 1977, Ogre became a phenomenon in the wargame scene. It was asymmetric, deceptively simple, and has endured for 45 ye...
May 18, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict. https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play or follow our RSS directly . Our website is angryplanetpod.com . You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/ ; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcoll...
May 06, 2022•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, everything old is new again. Russia and the West are separating. Fast. For those of us who were alive in the 1980s, it all feels bracingly familiar. That includes, especially, nuclear saber rattling. Putin, the Duman, and Russian TV feel like they’ve gone out of their way to remind the rest of the world: hey, we’ve got nukes. But how likely is the possibility of nuclear war, really? And what are Russia’s nuclear capabilities exactly? Here to help us answer...
Apr 28, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past month, we’ve discussed a lot of specifics regarding the War in Ukraine. We’ve gone over the role of tanks, talked about Putin’s motives, and discussed War Crimes. What we haven’t done, really, is look at the big picture. What does this war mean, not just for Ukraine, but for Europe and America. What is the future of NATO? Increasingly, it feels like we’re on the precipice of something … new and, perhaps, frightening. With us today to talk through all this is Charles A. Kupchan. Kup...
Apr 15, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
