Matti Friedman is an award-winning journalist and columnist at The Free Press. He joins the show to discuss his latest book, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe. Whom were the Zionist Jews fighting on behalf of the British during World War II? What happened to the legendary Zionist figure Hannah Senesh? And how did a war story without battlefield success help give birth to a nation?

01:45 - The scene in British Mandate Palestine

07:30 - British MI9 unit

07:38 - Jewish military units

08:41 - Rescue missions into Europe

14:21 - Secret meeting in Tel Aviv

17:29 - Palestinian Jews’ view of European Jewry

21:51 - Hannah Senesh

24:46 - Parachuting technology in WWII

26:44 - Sword of Honour trilogy

29:48 - Discrimination against Jewish agents in Europe

32:54 - Chaos at the end of WWII

34:13 - Hannah Senesh’s doomed mission

43:10 - The escape of Hannah’s mother

47:43 - The importance of heroes and myths

49:06 - Understanding Zionism

 Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Sullivan, former U.S. national security adviser under President Joe Biden, Kissinger professor of the practice of statecraft and world order at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-host of The Long Game podcast, joins School of War to discuss geopolitics through the lens of today’s Democratic Party. Where do Democrats stand on China, Israel, Iran, and the war in Ukraine?

02:29 - China summit recap

04:03 - President Trump’s goals in China

05:44 - Taiwan threat level

08:50 - Democratic Party position on China

14:16 - Avoiding war with China

16:39 - Nature of competition with China

18:39 - Role of AI in power struggle

23:44 - Critique of Trump’s Iran policy

27:17 - Democratic Party position on Iran

32:30 - Iran’s nuclear program

35:25 - Democratic Party position on Israel

45:15 - Russia-Ukraine conflict

51:12 - Democratic Party restraint policies

52:56 - Weapon systems assistance for Ukraine

 Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and columnist at The Free Press, joins the show in front of a live audience to discuss the perilous moment we find ourselves in and how it all relates to history. What is the status of the Iran war? What is influencing President Donald Trump’s policymaking? How do we defeat a dangerous wave of “anti-history”? And are we on the brink of a world war, a cold war, or something in between?

03:35 - Historical analogies for today

09:51 - Short war illusion

15:14 - We’re in a Cold War II

18:12 - Putin’s essay from 2021

19:50 - Russia-Ukraine war

25:29 - The American mythos of WWII

26:58 - Anti-history

30:04 - The life work of Bill Buckley

31:37 - Return of antisemitism and socialism

32:52 - President Trump’s worldview

36:37 - The war in Iran

47:45 - The new state of warfighting

53:53 - President Trump’s treatment of Ukraine

57:17 - Risks of Taiwan conflict

01:03:57 - Limits to air power

01:06:58 - Reversal of historical revisionism

01:12:30 - Story about Aaron’s father

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christian Brose, president and chief strategy officer of Anduril Industries and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, joins the show to help us evaluate American performance against Iran so far and discuss the state of defense innovation in America. What is on the cutting edge? Where are we falling behind? And what happens if the war comes home? 

Times:

01:58 - Audit of Operation Epic Fury

05:04 - Munitions and weapons shortages

08:30 - New lower-cost weapons

10:56 - The Barracuda cruise missile system

15:04 - Lessons from the battlefield

15:41 - Missile defense systems

21:47 - Software, data, and AI

24:39 - Homeland defense

27:02 - Containerization

28:05 - Industrial capacity

31:36 - Bringing Americans back into defense manufacturing

34:43 - The defense budget

39:02 - Anduril fundraising

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition and the Tikvah Fund, joins the show to discuss Israel, Iran, and the new power dynamics in the Middle East. What new alliances have emerged since the chaos on October 7, 2023? How has the current war with Iran reshaped the region? With a storm of competing interests, fragile partnerships, and global stakes, can stability emerge, or is the Middle East heading toward an even wider conflict?

02:10 - Israel today

04:02- Israeli airport security

05:58 - Netanyahu’s domestic political situation

09:07 - Bibi’s secret visit to the UAE

10:15 - American military aircrafts in Israel

12:01 - Israel-UAE relationship

15:57- October 7th Middle East aftermath

17:17 - Erosion of Iranian proxies

19:20 - Israeli-Saudi relationship

20:27 - Egypt’s global decline

22:24 - Turkey’s role

29:09 - Israel-Lebanon relationship

28:30 - Hezbollah factor

32:25 - How to handle Hamas

36:31 - Iran and the future of the Strait of Hormuz

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sam Brownback, former Kansas senator and governor, co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit, and author of China’s War on Faith, joins School of War to discuss the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of religious minorities and how its domestic oppression shapes America’s broader strategic posture toward China. How is Beijing using the digital revolution as a tool of political control? Should freedom of religion be treated as a central front in the U.S.-China rivalry? With President Trump currently in China for a summit with President Xi Jinping, the world is watching a clash that extends beyond economics and military power into a conflict over faith, freedom, and the moral future of humanity.

Times:

03:25 - Trump’s China summit

05:25 - Clash of civilizations

06:18 - History of Christianity in China

08:41 - Governor’s transformative past

11:07- Systems of communism

15:53 - Chinese surveillance technology

17:22 - Peter Xu history

19:40 - Dangers of the CCP

20:53 - Treatment of religious minorities

26:12 - Technologies for oppression

29:00 - Trump’s handling of disentanglement

32:25 - American religious freedom

35:20 - The Falun Gong

37:46 - Confrontation vs. accommodation 

42:59 - Story of Wang Chun Yan

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Blumenthal, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss the president’s upcoming summit in Beijing with President Xi Jinping. What are President Trump’s goals? How will war with Iran affect the meeting? And what do these discussions mean for the future of conflict in the Indo-Pacific?

02:12 Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping

03:38 Trump’s goals at summit

04:48 China’s leverage over Iran

05:57 China’s principal interest in the Middle East

08:14 U.S. sanctions on Iran and China

10:22 China’s diversified energy imports

13:05 American-Chinese competition

15:34 Defense industrial base issues

16:03 AI factor

16:34 China’s industrial leverage

19:05 Economic showdown

24:43 The Taiwan issue

26:22 Global conflict lessons for Taiwan

28:46 Division of Taiwanese politics

31:46 Stakes for the future

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, joins School of War to discuss global population decline. What does a shrinking and aging population mean for the United States? What does it mean for China, whose demographic crisis may be even more severe? How could population decline reshape economic growth, military power, and geopolitical competition? And what happens to the international order when the world stops growing?

03:02 Population decline in America

006:15 Deaths exceeding births in the US

07:31 Global birth crash

14:49 Grounds for optimism

17:12 Small family trend

18:17 GDP relationship with population size

19:23  Individual prosperity vs. National strength

21:24 Rise in human life expectancy

24:36  Ben Carson’s prediction

27:11 Ukraine’s military revolution 

30:47  American bad habits

33:48 AI and the labor market

37:25 Chinese depopulation crisis

48:50  What would a world war look like today?

51:48 US Alliance relationships

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rich Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Garrett Exner, adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute, return to School of War to discuss the complicated news out of the Strait of Hormuz. What is President Donald Trump’s new plan, “Project Freedom”? Does it put the ceasefire at risk? What’s really happening in this critical waterway?

Times:

02:31 - President’s statement

04:00 - Understanding Project Freedom

07:15 - Attacks against tankers

09:53 - Central Command statement

12:15 - Ceasefire breakdown

16:25 - Coordination cell or escort

18:00 - Trump buying time

20:40 - US Navy escort option

23:06 - Missile defense

24:45 - Economic impacts

27:01 - Iran under pressure

31:50 - Live news US vessel transit

34:15 - Human factor of outbound transit

37:30 - American gas production

39:28 - Predictions in America’s favor

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lance R. Blyth, command historian of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), joins School of War to discuss the evolution of North America’s air defense. How has NORAD adapted to shifting threats over the decades? Are today’s threats manageable? Are we in a new Cold War? And what can the command, with operations deep inside a Colorado mountain, teach us about defending the continent in an era of renewed great-power competition?

Times:

02:04 History of NORAD

07:02 Threats of the 1950s

13:50 Sensors, effectors, and connectors

15:15 Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE)

19:45 SABRE travel system

21:14 Aerospace missile warning systems

22:07 Cheyenne Mountain Complex

24:13 NORAD in films

27:56 False missile launches

31:31 Adapting to new threats

34:23 New joint surveillance system

35:19 Importance of Canada

36:21 September 11

40:21 Operation Noble Eagle

43:00 Today’s threats

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Douglas Murray, journalist and author of On Democracies and Death Cults, joins School of War to discuss the assassination attempt that we both witnessed in person at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday. Was there a lapse in appropriate security? Is political violence being normalized? Can it be contained?

Times:

02:44 - White House Correspondents Dinner
04:38 - Shots fired
06:51 - Security at the dinner
09:58 - Bobby Kennedy and Erika Kirk
16:25 - Secret Service valor
17:25 - Israeli security style
19:42 - Trump’s ballroom
21:35 - The shooter’s manifesto
27:26 - Past American political violence
29:13 - Assassinations can change history
31:09 - Hitler comparison
34:47 - Civic hygiene
36:49 - Justifying violence on NYT podcast
40:22 - Echoes of the Russian Revolution
47:05 - Failure of the education system
54:23 - The melding of the president and media

Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcast

Find more at The Free Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices