Defense One Radio

This week on the program: • Cornell Anthropology Professor Magnus Fiskesjö talks (1:34) with Paulina Glass about how developments in a remote province in western China are setting off alarm bells in the White House and in the international community. • Then (15:25) we’ll get some strategic perspective on the actual and overblown threats posed by the rising power of China’s military and economy — with Dr. Robert Farley of the University of Kentucky. • And we’ll end (28:53) with a look at some of the latest research in coal — with UK’s Jim Hower, Jack Groppo and Daniel Mohler — and how elements left behind by burning the stuff winds up powering some of today's most important military equipment, as well as the device you might be using right now.

• This week we learned one of the men believed to have poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the southern Great Britain city of Salisbury this past March may have in fact been a trained medical doctor. We’ll talk (1:59) with one of the open-source investigators who helped unmask those Russian spies, Aric Toler of Bellingcat. • Almost exactly one year ago, the deadliest terrorist attack in Africa’s history took place in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The culprits: al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia. We’ll hear (15:41) from the authors of a new book — Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph from Voice of America — about the group, its history, and an outlook for how long its reign of terror may endure around the Horn of Africa. • Then (33:36) we’ll turn to America’s allies in the British navy. They recently welcomed the world’s most advanced combat aircraft — the F-35 — to their lone aircraft carrier training in the Atlantic Ocean. Our own Marcus Weisgerber was there and tells us what it means for America’s ally across the pond. • And we’ll end with an interview with Bell Helicopter’s CEO Mitch Snyder. He sat down (42:47) with Marcus to talk about the V-22 Osprey, the possible future of aircraft taxis, China, and more.

This week on the program: • Former Nebraska Senator and Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel came by our offices at the Watergate this week to help us celebrate Defense One’s fifth anniversary. Hagel sat down (2:05) with Executive Editor Kevin Baron to talk about the Trump White House, the Greatest Generation, putting country over party, NATO, China and more. • Then (39:54) former Pentagon officials Rosa Brooks of the Georgetown University Law Center and Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies join Kevin to assess and expand on many of the ideas Secretary Hagel shared.

This week on the program: • President Trump took to the UN to say China is meddling in American politics — and trying to thwart him in particular. Defense One Tech Editor Patrick Tucker and Editorial Fellow Paulina Glass help explain (1:59) what really seems to be going on there. • Then (17:13) we’ll pivot to the war in Syria and Syria’s ally, Iran. How long does U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis want American troops staying in Syria? And how long does Trump’s National Security Adviser, John Bolton, want them to stay? Senior National Security Correspondent Katie Bo Williams gets into that and some of the less public efforts to constrain Iranian influence in the region and beyond. • Ukraine wants to build a navy to deter Russia around the Sea of Azov (26:24). Is that even possible? • And we’ll round things out by speaking with deployed Brig. Gen. Scott Jackson (36:11) of the U.S. Army’s 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade. Jackson called us from Gardez, Afghanistan, to share what he’s learned after eight months on the job in the eastern Paktiya province, bordering Pakistan.

This week on the program: • How to rethink America’s force distribution across the Middle East. Can it be done smarter? Can it be done cheaper? Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Melissa Dalton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies sat down (1:49) with Defense One’s Bradley Peniston to answer those questions and more. • Then we’ll turn to one of the newest weapons of war — consumer drones packed with explosives. We’ll speak to Arthur Holland Michel (29:11) of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, and (35:04) Brett Velicovich of Expert Drones to learn about the gear that’s emerged to stop these things, how hard it is, and how market dynamics are creating an arms race to both reduce and enable the dangers of consumer drones.

On this special edition of our podcast, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sits down with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron at the studios of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Discussed: • How the secretary is still selling and justifying NATO's existence after the NATO summit • Why Afghanistan is still worth it • The real threat from Russia is... • What Secretary Stoltenberg likes about early morning jogs in Washington + much more.

This week on the program: • We talk about drones, the national security bureaucracy, and the American way of war (1:49) with Loren DeJonge Schulman of the Center for a New American Security — and co-host of the Bombshell podcast over at War on the Rocks. • Then (21:49) we’ll check in on the "Houthi war machine" in the mountains and valleys of Yemen. Dr. Michael Knights of the Washington Institute is back from a visit to the conflict’s front lines. And he joins us to paint a startling picture of a rapidly-evolving 21st-century insurgency. • And we’ll end (40:20) with a discussion on the prospects for nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea. Dr. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies speaks with us about his new speculative novel, “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States.” Extra reading: • Loren's report on U.S. drone use can be accessed here https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/08/trumps-secret-war-terror/150448/ • Find Michael's recent report on the Houthis here https://ctc.usma.edu/houthi-war-machine-guerrilla-war-state-capture/ • And Jeffrey's novel can be purchased on Amazon here https://amzn.to/2LIihij

This week on the program: • For the last several days, UN officials have been warning against an imminent “bloodbath” in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where Russian jets this week resumed airstrikes against rebels quarantined there over the last several months. We’ll speak with Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group (1:49) about the risks and stakes of escalating in Idlib — and what the Syrian conflict is teaching us about great powers in the 21st century. • Then (18:45) we’ll check in on the Saudi-led war in Yemen with Peter Salisbury of the London-based Chatham House. He’s written multiple reports on what he’s called the “chaos state” that is that country. And we’ll get his read on where the complicated war is headed… and how he found himself even watching the fighting in the first place.

This week on the program: • Only a few days ago, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon of the Council on Foreign Relations was in the streets of Raqqa, Syria — the very place ISIS called its headquarters until October of last year. Gayle sat down with Defense One’s Kevin Baron and Ben Watson to elaborate (1:52) on her reporting this week, as well as her caution and optimism about certain aspects of Syria’s future. • Afterward (19:53), she shares a bit of her perspective and her reporting from America’s longest war, the conflict in Afghanistan.  • Then (37:07) we’ll hear how the U.S. Army is trying to acquire the weapons of tomorrow — by visiting Austin, Texas, for the opening of the Army’s new Futures Command. Tech Editor Patrick Tucker was there. And he spoke with Army Under Secretary Ryan McCarthy, and Army Vice Chief of Staff. Gen. Jim McConville.

This week on the program: • It’s been a year since President Trump announced his administration’s Afghanistan strategy. We’ll talk to two experts — Graeme Smith of the International Crisis Group (1:39), and Professor Tanisha Fazal of the University of Minnesota (17:53) — about why the Afghan conflict has gone on for as long as it has, and how America has changed its understanding and experience of war and peace as a result. • Then (31:13) we’ll join Jonathan Mummolo of Princeton to take a look at the effect of passing U.S. military gear onto American police departments — 12 months after President Trump reopened the transfer of that equipment in a program that made headlines thanks to the Ferguson protests in August 2014. • Read Tanisha Fazal and Sarah Kreps on "Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home" via Foreign Affairs at https://t.co/AA6AlgFL0z • Find Kreps's book, "Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy," at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/taxing-wars-9780190865306 • Find Jonathan Mummolo's study, "Militarization fails to enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation," via PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/14/1805161115 • Graeme Smith's latest report can be found at https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/298-building-afghanistans-fleeting-ceasefire • Wanna leave us a message? Call (757) 447-4596 and record your voicemail. You just might make it on the podcast. Thanks for listening!