None of the world’s great powers were ready for the carnage World War I. The armies of 1914 looked a lot like the armies of 1814 … but they didn’t go to war with 19th century weapons. The modern world was born in blood on the battlefields of Europe during the Great War … and the machine gun cut the umbilical cord. This week on War College, we sit down with Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons as he walks us through the Maxim Gun -- one of the earliest machine guns -- and how it changed the pace of war forever.

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The need for armies, both ancient and modern, to travel long distances to thwart enemies and take territory has made militaries one of the driving factors behind food science.

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It’s the world’s most famous weapon, popular with soldiers, insurgents and video gamers alike. As many as 100 million of the world's guns are descended from Mikhail Kalashnikov's original Avtomat Kalashnikova, first prototyped in 1947. How many lives they've taken is unknown.

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War College talks to author and journalist Robert Young Pelton talks about the waves of immigrants washing up on the shores of Europe and why things have gotten worse in the last few months. 

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This week’s War College examines the state of Iran’s conventional military, as well as its guiding strategies. Jason Fields, Matthew Gault and Robert Beckhusen also discuss the likely impact of the nuclear treaty on its regular forces.

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There are approximately 1,000 satellites currently in orbit, but how many of them are really weapons in disguise?

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This week’s War College looks at nuclear threats around the world and whether U.S. strategy has kept up. Thomas Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, says it hasn’t and explains why that makes the world a more dangerous place.

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This week War College looks at some of the weirdest weapons that the U.S. military came up with for use during the Vietnam War. While the nuclear rifle didn’t go anywhere, another invention can be found at raves around the world. 

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To understand just how strong China’s military really is, it’s important to understand its true mission and objectives. And those are very different from what the United States is trying to accomplish around the globe.

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Drones linger over battlefields all over the world, and over places that don’t realize that they’re battlefields until the Hellfire missiles strike.

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