Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

In this first episode, I discuss the fundamentals of French irregular warfare doctrine with a concentration on COIN, French martial history in a thumbnail and the tragedy of French arms in post-WWII Indochina.

References:

Martin Windrow The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

Bernard Fall Hell in a Very Small Place

Bernard Fall Street Without Joy

Ted Morgan Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt.

References:

Colonel Gian Gentile Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

I discuss the combat framework from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level and mission command for both regular and irregular warfare (IW). A deep knowledge of conventional warfare is very useful to fully grokking how IW works hence the inclusion of that perspective.

References:

ADP 6-0 Mission Command

Grant Tedrick Hammond The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security

Stephen Robinson Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War

Colin Gray Modern Strategy

Carl von Clausewitz On War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

In this episode, I sketch the lives and exploits of three guerrilla luminaries: TE Lawrence, GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck and Michael Collins. I want to use them to illustrate what I consider the next step in guerrilla evolution employing age-old techniques and strategies harnessed to modern technology and employment within the new age of mechanized warfare.

References:

Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins

James Gleeson Bloody Sunday

Tom Barry Guerrilla Days in Ireland

Peter Hart Michael Collins

Edwin P. Hoyt Guerrilla: COL Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African Empire

Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email me at [email protected].

Despite trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the West has nothing to show for the counterinsurgency campaigns it has waged. Despite the enormous industry and vast intellectual and historical apologetics combine, the wasteland is evident to all who take the time to examine the details. The emperor of COIN is naked.

References:

Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Robert Asprey War in the Shadows

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

The Irish Rebellion in 1916-1922 is what I characterize as in the era of "Peak Guerrilla" in concert with the exploits of TE Lawrence and GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck that set the stage for the modern irregular warfare era in the twentieth century. I will examine the exploits of Collins and the curious currents of history on a global basis that came to have great impacts on what appear to be local and regional conflicts and their final resolution.

References:

Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins

James Gleeson Bloody Sunday

Tom Barry Guerrilla Days in Ireland

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

In this episode, I make the case that insurgencies are antifragile and that counterinsurgencies are fragile for the most part; we discuss the concepts, examine historical and contemporary examples and set the stage for practitioners and scholars to leverage this model to gain a more true understanding of how IW works.

References:

Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

This charter episode will discuss the intent of the podcast and get started with the basics to create a framework of common understanding. This episode will discuss the National Defense Strategy, generations of warfare, civil war and the regional conflict complexes that emerge from larger wars and conflicts. Irregular warfare (IW) is rather complex and tends to be muddier, more nuanced and subject to interpretative misconceptions and we'll lay the groundwork for understanding these in both the larger and smaller contexts.

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].