Defense One Radio

This week on the program: • (1:21) The Pentagon is a little bit closer to getting its hands on a super fast rocket called a hypersonic missile. • Ahead of schedule, Congress passed and the president signed the annual defense policy bill. But (6:27) President Trump had more than a few things to say about what he signed, and what he won’t do that he’s been asked to do. • Then (13:25) we’ll get into what’s new from the world of hackers at this year’s Black Hat / DefCon. Our own Patrick Tucker has returned from Sin City to tell us all about what happened in Vegas. • He also spoke with the director of the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service, Chris Lynch (27:25). And we’ll break down that interview to end this week's episode.

This week on the program: • Introducing Katie Bo Williams, our new senior national security correspondent! • Vice President Mike Pence has a major update for us all about the Space Force; • Then (16:17) we’ll hear from Dr. Jason Warner from West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center. He’s co-authored a new report on the present and possible future of ISIS in Africa; • And we’ll end (26:14) with a discussion of extremism in America. ProPublica and Frontline correspondent A.C. Thompson tells us a bit about his new documentary out this week looking at the lessons he’s learned — and the people he’s unmasked — one year after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This week on the program: • The Atlantic's Natasha Bertrand (1:19) helps us put the Trump-Russia probe into perspective from a national security point of view; • Then (17:42) we'll discuss the latest plans by the Pentagon to march ahead with President Trump's desire for a Space Force — as a combatant command that pulls resources from the various existing services; • And we'll end (22:08) with a discussion on the possible future of the Iran nuclear deal.

This week on the program — from the sidelines of the 2018 Aspen Institute Security Forum: • Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin and Bloomberg's Eli Lake sit down (1:08) with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron to discuss what it's like covering national security in 2018. • Then (30:09) Afghanistan's Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Hamdullah Mohib, chats with Kevin Baron about the future of that country — where the U.S. military has been fighting for almost 17 consecutive years.

This week on the program: • What’s next for Syria — where militaries from more than half a dozen nations are fighting ISIS and al-Qaeda? We sat down with Charles Lister (1:52) of the Middle East Institute to get his read on Middle East insurgencies, and the internet’s potential to inspire the next generation of terrorists. • Then Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies speaks to Brad Peniston (32:21) about three uncomfortable questions Mara says the Pentagon must ask before helping a fragile state. • And we’ll end (59:03) across the pond at the 2018 Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom — what the BBC calls the biggest event of the year for the aerospace industry. America’s newest aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was there. And so was Defense One’s Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber. He takes us beside the airfield where he spoke with Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin’s manager for the F-35 program.

This week on the program: • We’ll begin in Brussels, where NATO heads of state gathered this week for the 2018 NATO summit. On Thursday, Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron sat down with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. We’ll bring you that discussion (at the 1:45 mark). • Then (22:30) we’ll hear from former FBI Agent and counterterrorism specialist Clint Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He has a new book out called "Messing With The Enemy: Surviving In A Social Media World Of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, And Fake News." Defense One Tech Editor Patrick Tucker joins us as Watts explains how fear plays a big role in Russian so-called active measures campaigns across the world both today and in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election — and a whole lot more. Watch the full Ghani interview, with audience questions included, at the Atlantic Council's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmf-uk16ERs

Here’s what we’re talking about this week (recorded on June 28, 2018): • Our former colleague and current Investigative Reporters and Editor’s fellow Molly O’Toole just got back from a trip to Mexico; so we’re gonna talk about national security on the southern U.S. border; • Then we’ll break down President Trump’s upcoming trip to NATO in July. • And after all that, we’ll drop in on our annual tech summit — which happened Tuesday in Washington — to hear Patrick Tucker interview the chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Robert P. Ashley, Jr. That begins at the 51:42 mark. In addition to Molly, we’re joined today by: • Kevin Baron, executive editor; • Bradley Peniston, deputy editor; • Patrick Tucker, tech editor; • and Ben Watson, news editor.

Here’s what we’re talking about this week (recorded June 21, 2018): • The president renewed his call for a whole new branch of the military, the Space Force; we’ll check in on how that’s coming; • And the military is sending its lawyers down to Texas to help sort through the whole children separated from their family dynamic that’s led U.S. news this week; • North Korea has selected a test site it wants to destroy as part of step-by-step negotiations with the U.S. to rid the country of its nuclear weapons; • And after that (at the 30:57 mark), our own Marcus Weisgerber interviews the President and CEO of BAE Systems, Inc., Jerry DeMuro. In today's roundtable: • Kevin Baron, executive editor; • Bradley Peniston, deputy editor; • Patrick Tucker, tech editor; • And Ben Watson; news editor. P.S. "Space Force: The Theme Song," by the Gregory Brothers, can be heard (and seen) in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=_AUXpnB065o

In this episode, recorded on Thursday, June 14, 2018: • The Atlantic's Uri Friedman on what lies ahead for the U.S. military on the Korean peninsula; • Then (35:27 with Meredith Stricker of the Soufan Center) we’ll get an update on the war in Yemen, which began a new chapter this week with a new offensive on the western port city of Hodeida (44:05 with Adam Baron of the European Council on Foreign Relations, from Beirut); • And after that, (at the 48:01 mark) we’ll travel down to Tampa where our own Patrick Tucker talks to the man who buys weapons for America’s special operators, Jim Smith. Today's roundtable participants include: • Uri Friedman, who writes about global affairs for The Atlantic; • Kevin Baron, Defense One executive editor; • Caroline Houck, Defense One staff correspondent; • And Ben Watson, Defense One news editor.

In this episode, recorded on Thursday, June 7, 2018: • Ploughshares Fund's Joe Cirincione joins us to talk about nuclear expectations and grand strategy out of Tuesday's Trump-Kim summit in Singapore; • We’ll talk about what ISIS is believed to be up to in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago; • Then (at the 23:26 mark) we’ll hear from Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), who chairs the House's Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. He tells us about his view of the Navy’s future — and his thoughts on the upcoming film, "Top Gun 2" — from his offices on Capitol Hill; • After that, (46:03) we’ll talk about the “War of Annihilation,” Amnesty International’s latest report on civilian casualties in the U.S.-led operation to drive ISIS out of Raqqa, Syria. We’ll also hear the coalition’s unhappy response to that report. And we end this week (57:00) with a commemoration of some borderline-lunatic heroism from the beaches and battlefields of D-Day, 74 years ago this week, with Army veteran Joseph Kassabian. Today's roundtable participants include:  • Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund; • Kevin Baron, Defense One executive editor; • Brad Peniston, Defense One deputy editor; • Caroline Houck, Defense One staff correspondent; • And Ben Watson, Defense One news editor. References: Amnesty International's report: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/06/syria-raqqa-in-ruins-and-civilians-devastated-after-us-led-war-of-annihilation/ The counter-ISIS coalition's response to that report: https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1541855/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-colonel-veale-via-teleconference-from-b/source/GovDelivery/