Rachel Kousser, professor of Classics and Art History at the City University of New York and author of Alexander at the End of the World, joins the show to talk about the violent, brilliant, complex career of Alexander the Great.

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    •      01:27 Introduction

    •      01:59 Early years and conquest

    •      05:45 Pragmatic opportunist  

    •     09:20 Persepolis burning   

    •      11:48 Darius 

    •      14:36 Alexander in the field 

    •      19:30 Understanding the geography  

    •      25:56 Dreamer 

    •      29:50 “A war of choice…”

    •      32:57 Building something new 

    •      34:36 Breaking point  

    •      38:00 King with consent 

    •      41:48 Harnessing strength

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Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Palantir Technologies, joins the show to explain the broken Defense Department acquisition process and how he believes it can be fixed.

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Times 

    •      01:24 Introduction

    •      01:39 Employee #13 

    •      03:14 Palantir 

    •      06:22 Monopsony  

    •      11:18 Messy and chaotic 

    •      14:40 Dual purpose companies 

    •      17:18 The buying process 

    •      23:50 Pushback

    •      25:59 Competing efforts

    •      27:37 Heretics and heroes 

    •      31:22 Thinking about future war  

    •      35:05 A changing selection criteria 

    •      36:47 “The future is software defined”  

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Mark Dubowitz, chief executive officer of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, joins the show to break down the collapse of the Assad regime and the implications for Israel, Turkey, and Iran.

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Times 

    •      01:23 Introduction

    •      02:49 What happened?  

    •      05:04 Rebels 

    •     08:17 Risk assessment  

    •      11:30 Factions

    •      17:10 Extremists and radicals 

    •      19:15 “Our enemies lie to us…”  

    •      24:19 Defensive reshuffle

    •      29:11 Nuclear Iran

    •      34:59 A powerful message

    •      42:40 Striking power  

    •      47:27 A new “Ring of Fire”

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Host Aaron MacLean recently embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces and saw firsthand Israel’s war with Iranian proxy groups Hezbollah and Hamas. What lessons can Americans learn from Israel’s year of fighting for its survival? 

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Times 

  •      03:28 The North 

    •    04:26 Metula 

    •    07:45 Yishai

    •    10:00 Realities and misconceptions  

    •    18:06 Stalemate

    •    22:33 Shaping the fight 

    •    40:00 Reconnaissance-strike complex  

    •    46:38 Dotan Razili

    •    50:50 Iron Dome in action

    •    54:43 Sarit Zehavi

    •    1:11:01 Hezbollah defeated  

    •    1:12:58 “Knowing but not understanding”

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Michael Leggiere, Professor of Humanities at the University of Florida and editor of War Studies Journal 1, joins the show to discuss the sad state of military history in higher education.

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Times 

    •      01:17 Introduction 

    •      02:48 Military history in academia 

    •      03:53 PME 

    •     05:22 What is “new” military history?  

    •      11:55 “History shouldn’t be a mystery”

    •      17:55 The Journal

    •      20:45 Suggested pieces  

    •      24:32 Napoleon  

    •      26:58 Lee

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Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at AEI and author of Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending, joins the show to discuss the dire situation the U.S. defense budget is in. 

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Times 

    •      01:22 Introduction 

    •      02:48 Keeping up 

    •      05:26 China’s spending 

    •     10:01 Equipment costs  

    •      13:46 “Stealing our stuff”

    •      18:25 5 alarm fire

    •      20:32 U.S. budget truths  

    •      24:50 BCA 101 

    •      31:32 Today or tomorrow 

    •      39:23 Defense is cheaper, not better

    •      43:21 Solutions  

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Thomas Barfield, Professor and Chairman of the Anthropology Department at Boston University and author of Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History, joins the show to discuss empire.  

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Times 

    •      01:15 Introduction 

    •      03:20 Understanding Afghanistan 

    •      05:15 Classifying empires 

    •     09:59 Failures and features  

    •      12:24 Borders

    •      15:30 Exogenous empires

    •      21:36 Brits and Athenians  

    •      26:40 Vulture empires 

    •      32:21 Taking responsibility 

    •      37:15 Empires of nostalgia

    •      44:50 Vacuum empires  

    •      51:05 American/Athenian policy 

    •      54:53 China and empire today

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Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of Duty to Deter: American Nuclear Deterrence and the Just War Doctrine, joins the show to make the moral argument for why the United States should modernize and grow its nuclear arsenal. 

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Times 

    •      01:15 Introduction 

    •      01:48 A net good

    •      04:50 Tactical nuclear weapons

    •     10:25 The argument of disarmament 

    •      14:03 Cold War strategy

    •      19:53 Capability and will

    •      26:06 Downside of “no first use”  

    •      32:03 The nuclear triad 

    •      37:20 Russia and China 

    •      40:56 The moral argument

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Randall Schriver, Chairman of the Board at The Project 2049 Institute, and Dan Blumenthal, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, join the show to discuss a road map for economic competition—and warfare—between the U.S. and China. 

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Times 

    •      01:55 Introduction 

    •      02:30 Planning for economic warfare

    •      06:27 Endstate

    •     10:18 Leadership

    •      12:21 NSDD

    •      14:59 Starting points

    •      17:10 Decoupling  

    •      20:03 Where is the stuff coming from? 

    •      23:50 Degrading the Chinese economy 

    •      27:33 A dream of cooperation

    •      32:17 Slow the growth

    •      36:08 Wargaming  

    •      41:41 Protraction

    •      44:49 International and Congressional concerns

Click the link to read the report - DEFEATING THE CCP A RUNNING START

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Watch this episode on YouTube. Frank Cohn joins the show to talk about his life: fleeing Hitler’s Germany, his return as a U.S. soldier tasked with hunting Nazi’s, his service in Vietnam, and more.

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Times 

    •      01:55 Introduction 

    •      02:15 A Nazi in the classroom

    •      05:47 Martin and Ruth

    •     17:35 Leaving Germany

    •      19:22 New York City

    •      22:50 Pearl Harbor

    •      30:47 Back to Europe 

    •      35:30 Nazi Hunter 

    •      39:48 POW for a moment 

    •      42:32 The Dutch lady

    •      50:40 Camps

    •      52:30 Crossing the Elbe 

    •      59:20 Interrogations

    •      01:05:40 Paying back the country 

    •      01:08:51 Paula 

    •      01:14:50 Military Police and Vietnam

    •      01:18:40 Angus 

    •      01:21:12 Lessons

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Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss the North Korean regime and the geopolitical impact of its decision to send troops to support Russia in Ukraine.

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Times 

    •      01:36 Introduction 

    •      01:49 Finding North Korea

    •      04:00 The Sung dynasty

    •     09:24 Beijing and Moscow

    •      14:43 Kim Jong Il

    •      22:14 Mackinder’s World-Island

    •      26:29 Interconnected 

    •      33:18 Why commit to Russia? 

    •      36:55 Limited imaginations  

    •      39:03 New differences

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