Michael Cook, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and author of A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity, joins the show to discuss the sudden, explosive Arab expansion of the 7th century. 

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Times 

    •     01:46 Introduction

    •     03:05 Sources

    •     04:42 War and politics   

    •     07:32 Grass and sand  

    •     09:30 Self-defense    

    •     12:21 Ibn Khaldun 

    •     16:11 An Arab identity  

    •     18:45 Knock on effects   

    •     26:40 Two targets 

    •     28:32 The Arab way of war  

    •     34:50 Coming out of the desert   

    •     38:48 Civil war 

    •     42:27 Jihad

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Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, joins the show to discuss how both sides have lost the Ukraine War, and the risks of various routes to peace.

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Times 

    •      02:47 Pressuring Putin

    •      12:50 A new path

    •     17:07 Avoiding a debacle   

    •      32:43 Friends

    •     38:30 Realignment

    •      46:58 Articulating strategy

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Phillips O’Brien, chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War, joins the show to discuss the nature of strategic decision making in World War II and beyond.

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Times 

    •      01:50 Introduction

    •      02:48 Germany 1st debunked

    •     06:50 A matter of choices  

    •      08:20 Management styles  

    •     11:23 FDR the navalist   

    •      14:42 Strategic balance

    •      16:52 The British Empire  

    •      18:58 Churchill the shapeshifter     

    •      26:42 Britain’s place

    •      29:22 Casablanca 

    •      33:54 Making Hitler

    •      38:43 Firepower + racial superiority 

    •      42:41 Delaying defeat

    •      44:55 A childish view of war 

    •      46:50 Human decisions

    •      48:28 Stalin the survivor

    •      51:30 “Not nice people”

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Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at FDD and retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, joins the show to discuss how prepared (or ill-prepared) the U.S. is for cyber warfare.

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Times 

    •      03:24 Introduction

    •      04:20 America: A Target Rich Environment

    •     05:59 Cyber and mobilization  

    •      08:35 What actually happens? 

    •      11:36 Automation   

    •      16:18 Salt and volt typhoon

    •      22:04 Continuity of the economy  

    •      28:33 Offense    

    •      35:05 Cyber responses

    •      38:43 Public opinion 

    •      41:43 Defense of the homeland

    •      49:30 A new kind of leader

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Christopher Kolakowski, director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and editor of Tenth Army Commander: The World War II Diary of Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., joins the show to discuss the most senior U.S. officer killed by enemy action in WWII, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. 

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Times 

    •      01:44 Introduction

    •      02:15 In the shadows

    •     03:53 Fathers and sons 

    •      06:28 Childhood 

    •      09:30 West Point Commandant of Cadets   

    •      16:03 Alaska ’41

    •      20:18 The Japanese threat 

    •      24:20 10th Army   

    •      29:03 Notes for an unwritten memoir

    •      31:02 Operation Causeway

    •      35:47 Okinawa

    •      41:52 Attrition

    •      43:50 Another Anzio?

    •      50:57 Homeward bound

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David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern World at King’s College London and author of The Guarded Age: Fortification in the Twenty-First Century, joins the show to discuss how fortification is alive, well, and everywhere. 

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Times 

    •      01:22 Introduction

    •      01:53 A default condition

    •     13:20 Why is that there? 

    •      22:13 Alexandrian foundations 

    •      28:50 Security and mobility    

    •      39:53 The pendulum swings

    •      48:54 Intrigue  

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Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army and author of War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict, joins the show to discuss future-war fiction and the possible futures of current wars.

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Times 

    •      01:23 Introduction

    •      02:10 Tom Clancy

    •     05:40 Accessibility 

    •      07:14 The Battle of Dorking 

    •      09:57 White Sun War   

    •      13:39 Diplomatic failures

    •      15:40 Friction 

    •      18:50 Israel transformed   

    •      23:00 Existential threats

    •      25:25 Ukraine

    •      32:31 Pressuring Putin   

    •      35:01 Taiwan and Japan

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Hal Brands, Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World, joins the show to discuss the continued relevance of geopolitics.

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Times 

    •      01:29 Introduction

    •      01:54 Twentieth century

    •     03:29 Advent of geopolitical theory

    •      07:08 Land versus sea 

    •      13:09 Authoritarianism   

    •      17:40 Struggle for power

    •      20:30 Burdens of defense 

    •      23:25 Eurasia   

    •      27:50 Different politics

    •      36:09 “…a kind of American realism” 

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Tom Karako, Senior Fellow and Director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS, joins the show to discuss what President Trump’s executive order on missile defense portends.

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Times 

    •      01:15 Introduction

    •      02:08 Dawn of missile defense 

    •     05:50 Ups and downs

    •      10:40 Arguments against 

    •      14:50 Capabilities  

    •      18:45 A layered defense

    •      22:20 Cost 

    •      26:42 Tried and tested  

    •      28:21 A “Pearl Harbor” Pearl Harbor 

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Eric Chewning and Thomas Moore of HII join the show to discuss America’s military shipbuilding challenges, and their potential solutions.

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Times 

    •      01:32 Introduction

    •      01:55 Origins 

    •     07:08 An eroded defense industrial base 

    •      10:20 Shipbuilding in 2025  

    •      17:11 Deindustrialization  

    •      21:46 Learning curves

    •      27:00 Contract economics 

    •      32:26 Japan and South Korea  

    •      37:39 Thinking about the whole problem   

    •      39:03 Manned and unmanned   

    •      42:25 Force protection 

    •      45:06 Soft kills and hard kills

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Diana Mara Henry and Gabe Scheinmann join the show to discuss the new book I Am André: German Jew, French Resistance Fighter, British Spy, which charts the astonishing, brave, and tragic World War II career of ‘André’ Joseph Scheinmann.

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Times 

    •      01:50 Introduction

    •      03:01 The story of a fighter 

    •     09:26 Born in Munich   

    •      11:87 Citizen without a country 

    •      17:08 Liaison to the High Command  

    •      21:46 MI6  

    •      25:20 Spycraft 

    •      30:27 London and capture 

    •      36:31 Interrogation  

    •      42:52 Max and Regina  

    •      46:40 Natzweiler 

    •      52:29 Dachau 

    •      55:30 America

    •      01:01:17 “Jews as fighters”

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