School of War Podcast

Why Another Iran Strike Looks Inevitable

21K views · 1d ago · 1:18:39

Will Iran cost Republicans the midterms? What happens when half of the GOP turns against Israel? Middle East expert Mike Doran returns to School of War for a wide-ranging discussion of these questions as the midterms threaten to widen divisions on the American right over foreign policy.

Topics: Trump’s Next Move on Iran · Can Trump Force a Deal? · What Iran Really Wants · Is Renewed War Inevitable? · Targeting Iran’s Refineries · Trump, Putin, and Russian Oil

What Israel’s Election Is Really About, with Haviv Rettig Gur

29K views · 3d ago · 1:26:15

Guest: Haviv Rettig Gur

“It feels like an election where the nature of the country, the future of this foundational ethos of solidarity, is at stake,” says Haviv Rettig Gur. The Free Press Middle East analyst and host of Ask Haviv Anything joins Aaron MacLean in Jerusalem to explore the history behind the election’s deepest divisions.

Topics: What Is Zionism? · Herzl’s Warning · A Jewish Rescue Project · Visions of the Jewish State · Netanyahu’s Security Message · American Jews and Israel

Sweden’s Secret Army

34K views · 1w ago · 49:04

Topics: The Soviet Threat · Was Sweden Neutral? · Sweden in World War II · Sweden’s Military Might · Building the Resistance · Legalizing a Secret Army

Can Ukraine Win Without America?

9.4K views · 1w ago · 43:34

Topics: Ukraine and Iran · Putin’s American Lifeline · Rising Diesel Prices · Ukraine’s Starlink Dependence · Satellite Speed Limits · Russia’s Jet-Powered Drones

The Making of Xi Jinping

12K views · 2w ago · 1:07:18

During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party purged Xi Jinping’s father and subjected him to 16 years of persecution and imprisonment—so how did the current president of China emerge more devoted to the party than ever? “It’s like a comic book villain origin story,” says Aaron MacLean.

Topics: The Xi Family and Communist Loyalty · Why Xi Jinping Never Abandoned the Party · China's Revolutionary Origins · The Books That Shaped Xi Jinping · Why China Embraced Communism · Xi Zhongxun's Rise and Near-Execution

When, Not If: The Baltics Prepare for War

34K views · 2w ago · 1:03:53

Guest: Brigadier General Nerijus Stankevičius

In the Baltics, war with Russia is no abstraction. Putin could take Lithuania’s capital if he achieved surprise, the nation’s army commander told Aaron MacLean. This week, Aaron travels through Lithuania and Latvia to speak with Brigadier General Nerijus Stankevičius, Lithuanian defense Minister Robertas Kaunas, and Latvian foreign minister Baiba Braže about why Lithuania is amending its constitution to allow weapons of mass destruction on its soil, what schoolchildren are…

Topics: Brig. Gen. Nerijus Stankevičius · Russia Could Take Vilnius · How Lithuania Would Fight · “Never Again” · Robertas Kaunas, Lithuania’s Defense Strategy · Drones, AI & the Eastern Flank

Rebuilding America’s War Machine

10K views · 3w ago · 49:53

America is running low on munitions, its shipyards can’t keep pace, and the materials its weapons depend on too often run through China. Michael Cadenazzi is the Pentagon official charged with turning that around, putting billions of dollars behind the factories, materials, and supply chains that make America’s military power possible.

Topics: America's Industrial Decline · Dependence on China · Pentagon Spending · Rare Earth Production · Defense Supply Chains · Weapons Manufacturing

What Happened Inside Russia’s Plague Lab?

45K views · 3w ago · 35:54

A young researcher in Siberia has died under mysterious circumstances, raising questions about a potential lab leak. Russia won’t say how it happened. Marshall Billingslea, former Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control, says Moscow has scrubbed news reports, had officials walk back talk of an outbreak, and kept the World Health Organization in the dark.

Topics: Mystery at a Russian Plague Lab · Russia’s Bioweapons Program · Weaponizing Plague · How Russia Would Use Bioweapons · Smallpox and Ebola · Controlling the Spread

Michael Oren: October 7 and the Cost of Defending Israel

65K views · 3w ago · 45:23

Guest: Michael Oren

Three years after October 7, the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history looms large over the Jewish state’s upcoming election. Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.

Topics: How October 7 Changed Israel · The Ultra-Orthodox Draft Fight · Israel’s Election and the Draft · Why the Ultra-Orthodox Don’t Serve · Oren's Path to the IDF · How Israel Defeated Hezbollah

What the Dutch Empire Reveals About America Today

15K views · 4w ago · 1:02:43

How do you fight a superpower you can’t afford to stop trading with? The Dutch faced that problem at the start of the 17th century in their war against Spain, and their answer was the Dutch West India Company, a business built to wage war. Alexander Bick, a historian who served on the National Security Council under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, joins School of War to discuss his new book, Minutes of Empire.

Topics: The Rise of the Dutch Republic · How Dutch Trading Companies Began · Shareholder Profits vs. National Strategy · Who Invested in the Company? · Challenging Spain in the New World · The Costs of Conquering Brazil

How the Middle East Got So Screwed Up, with Simon Sebag Montefiore

70K views · 1mo ago · 1:14:53

Guest: Simon Sebag Montefiore

“Let’s whisper it,” said historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. “The Trump blockade is working.” It can be hard to parse the state of play in the Middle East amid escalating rhetoric, but history gives us the necessary perspective to call balls and strikes in the present day.

Topics: The Middle East Is Not Monochrome · Four Eras of the Modern Middle East · The Problem With Nation-States · Why 1979 Changed the Middle East · Can Iran’s Revolution Survive Regime Change? · Iran, Hormuz, and the Nuclear Question

America’s Aging Shipyards Are a Crisis Waiting to Happen

10K views · 1mo ago · 47:24

If America wants to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, it needs to build more warships. China currently dominates global shipbuilding—producing vessels at a scale the United States can no longer match. Alex Wong, an executive at South Korean shipbuilding giant Hanwha Group and a former Trump administration national security adviser, thinks he has the solution.

Topics: America’s Shipbuilding Crisis · How America Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry · Why Commercial Shipbuilding Matters to the Navy · America vs. China’s Shipbuilding Capacity · Rebuilding America’s Shipyards · Robots and the Future of Shipbuilding

Do Hitler Comparisons Still Work?

1.9K views · 1mo ago · 8:09

Are we forgetting the lessons of World War II? Historian Brendan Simms joins School of War to discuss the return of great-power politics and the fading memory of the totalitarian horrors of the 20th century. Aaron MacLean worries that Americans on both the left and right have become too comfortable with the idea of a multipolar world, forgetting just how dark the last great-power system became.

The Middle East After America?

8.9K views · 1mo ago · 48:58

Could Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey form a “Muslim NATO?” Pakistan has the nuclear arsenal, Saudi Arabia has the wealth, and Turkey has the NATO-trained military—“you put these three together and it becomes a pretty formidable force,” says CBS News senior foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab.

Topics: Reporting From Afghanistan · Afghanistan After the U.S. Withdrawal · A More Confident Taliban · Life Under Taliban Rule · Afghanistan’s Secret Girls’ Schools · Letters From Afghan Girls

Why John Boyd Still Matters

8.8K views · 1mo ago · 59:58

John Boyd was one of the most influential military thinkers of the 20th century, and the intellectual godfather of the U.S. Marines’ military strategy. Today, as artificial intelligence continues to transform battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East, author and retired Marine officer Ian Brown argues that Boyd’s ideas are more relevant than ever.

Topics: Who Was John Boyd? · What Boyd Learned From Dogfighting · From Air Combat to the OODA Loop · Is the OODA Loop Really About Speed? · Blitzkrieg and the Vietnam War · Surfaces and Gaps