Defense One Radio

Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber and Ben Watson talked with the UK’s Minister Counsellor Defence Edward Ferguson about F-35s, aircraft carriers, NATO, Russia, the South China Sea, deterrence, the defence secretary, arms sales, and more.

This episode we bring you two conversations with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron from the Shangri-La Defense dialogues — which happened this past weekend in Singapore. Kevin sat down with the State Department’s Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Andrea Thompson, at the 26:34 mark. But first, Baron spoke with Dr. Kori Schake, the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, at the 0:49 mark.

Nuclear weapons have taken on growing importance during the Trump presidency. Today we’re going to speak with a couple of researchers and analysts — Erin Connolly of the Center for Arms Control, and Jamie Withorne of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies — who have been thinking about nukes and the cultural and political issues surrounding them throughout the country. (That begins at the 3:41 mark.) And we’ll end (25:34) with a retrospective looking back at the dangerous days of the Cold War, back when the U.S. and Soviet governments grappled with how to protect their citizens from nuclear war. Edward Geist of RAND recently published a comparative history of nuclear aftermath planning called “Armageddon Insurance: Civil Defense in the United States and Soviet Union, 1945–1991.” And he joins us by phone to talk all about it. You can find Jamie's work on classic paintings and nuclear weapons technology here: https://inkstickmedia.com/classics/ And you can read more about Girl Security here: https://www.girlsecurity.org/

This episode we’re going to look into why the U.S. military is escalating its air campaign in Somalia (at the 2:19 mark). We'll look into the larger strategy to which this is aimed (10:44). And (22:46) we'll ask if there are 21st-century lessons the U.S. military is learning from the same war-torn country that gave it “Blackhawk Down” almost 30 years ago. We’ll hear from a professor who has been studying the Somali National Army for quite a while now (Dr. Paul Williams of George Washington University). We’ll hear from a former Air Force bomb disposal technician who now investigates alleged civilian casualties for the human rights group Amnesty International (Brian Castner). And we’ll speak to a Pentagon official (Michelle Lenihan) about the long list of challenges ahead not just in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, but also Nigeria, Mali, and throughout the wider continent. Special thanks this to Katie Bo Williams. // Music by Paul Mottram and Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com Read a transcript of this episode here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/04/ep-42-escalating-somalia/156187/ Find Dr. Williams' analysis of the Somali army here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402390.2019.1575210

How has climate change cost the United States military already? And what sort of costs can the Defense Department expect to pay in the future? In this episode, we’re going to investigate matters of "resilience" and base design as part of a broader look at how climate change will likely affect the U.S. military in the years ahead. • Chapter 1: The damage (at the 2:03 mark) • Chapter 2: A turning point. (22:23) • Chapter 3: Adaptations (32:40) We’ll hear from a man who was the Navy’s chief oceanographer just a few years ago, Dr. David Titley. We’ll hear from a climatologist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Benjamin Santer. And we’ll talk to a man who helped draft one of the most recent reports on climate change from the Pentagon, John Conger, who directs the Center for Climate and Security. // Music by Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com. // Let us know what you think: email your thoughts to [email protected] • Read a transcript of this episode here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/03/ep-41-climate-change-versus-us-military/155948/ • Find the 2018 Pentagon infrastructure report here: https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/tab-b-slvas-report-1-24-2018.pdf

We’re going to extend a few of the conversations we began last week when we dug into the future of U.S.-Russian relations. • Professor Mark Galeotti returns (at the 1:38 mark) to tell us a bit more about Vladimir Putin and why corruption is a much bigger problem for Europe than disinformation. • Then (7:00) we’ll pivot to all things missile-related with a conversation between our very own Marcus Weisgerber and Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. • And we’ll end (34:54) with a word on carrier-killing missiles from the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson in a recent appearance at the Atlantic Council. Our music this week is by Terry Devine-King and Philip Guyler, via AudioNetwork.com.

This week we’re going to take a look at Russia and the future of the U.S.-Russian relationship, in three chapters: • After Putin (at the 1:30 mark); • Before Putin (17:14); • Now what (28:16). We'll revisit a battle against the Mongols 639 years ago, move ahead to Putin’s “zoo” of scary long-range weapons unveiled last year, and all the way forward to the challenges that come well after the Department of Justice’s Trump-Russia probe here in 2019. Our guests this week are Michael Carpenter, Senior Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington; Mark Galeotti, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London; Pavel Podvig, a physicist trained at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; and Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Our music is by Terry Devine-King, Barrie Gledden, Richard Lacy, David Kelly, Helen Jane Long, Philip Guyler, Tim Garland and Sam Wedgwood — via AudioNetwork.com. Related reading: "We Need to Talk About Putin," a 2019 book by Mark Galeotti (link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G2VVRVB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2); "Kulikovo, 1380: A Battle Almost Lost in Myth," a recent essay also by Mark Galeotti (https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Kulikovo_1380/); and "Self-assured destruction: The climate impacts of nuclear war," a report from Alan Robock of Rutgers and Owen Brian Toon of the University of Colorado-Boulder, here: http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSAD.pdf

• Chapter one: Staying in power (at the 1:24 mark);
• Chapter two: Revising history (19:57);
• Chapter three: Some thoughts about how to move forward (37:53).

Like last week, our guests include Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security; Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Andrew Wilson of the U.S. Naval War College (not speaking on behalf of the Navy or the Defense Department); and Pamela Crossley of Dartmouth University. Special thanks as well this week to Paulina Glass. Music by Terry-Devine King, Chris Blackwell and Tim Garland via AudioNetwork.com

Related reading: "Social Credit" by Samantha Hoffman via ASPI  + "Xi’s China Is Steamrolling Its Own History," by Pamela Crossley + "Battlefield Singularity Artificial Intelligence, Military Revolution, and China’s Future Military Power" by Elsa Kania via CNAS.

This week on the program, we’re going to explore the U.S.-China relationship beginning with tensions in and around the South China Sea. It's broken up into three parts: 1. How did all this begin? (at the 2:58 mark) 2. What's in it for Beijing? (11:16) 3. Where to go and what to know from here (24:28) Our guests include Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security; Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Andrew Wilson of the U.S. Naval War College (not speaking on behalf of the Navy or the Defense Department); and Pamela Crossley of Dartmouth University. Special thanks as well to Paulina Glass, Katie Bo Williams and Marcus Weisgerber. • Related reading: "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?" by Graham Allison. (https://www.amazon.com/Destined-War-America-Escape-Thucydidess-ebook/dp/B01IAS9FZY) and "China Goes to Sea," a 2009 collection of essays from the Naval Institute Press (https://www.amazon.com/China-Goes-Sea-Transformation-Comparative/dp/1591142423).