Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share EMERGENCY POD: Trump's Pivot to Putin, AGI + The Future of Warfare
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
EMERGENCY POD: Trump's Pivot to Putin, AGI + The Future of Warfare
Note: This episode was recorded Wednesday February 26th, two days before Zelenskyy's press conference with J.D. Vance and Trump in the White House.
Shashank Joshi (Defence Editor at The Economist) and Michael Horowitz (Biden's Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities, now back at Penn) come on the show to discuss:
Ukraine's Chances on the Battlefield: We revisit J.D. Vance's tweet war with Shashank where he claims Ukraine is fated to lose, highlighting how war is nonlinear and dependent on political cohesion, economic strength, and defense industrial capacity beyond just manpower.
Trump's Pivot to Putin: We try to think through what Trump is doing with Ukraine and Russia at the strategic level and what the long term and second order consequences are.
AI and the Future of Warfare: We discuss of how AGI would transform warfare, with Horowitz suggesting progress will be incremental rather than revolutionary, emphasizing government adoption challenges over 0 to 1 technical breakthroughs.
"Precise Mass" in Combat: Ukrainian forces have demonstrated how AI-guided drones achieving 80%+ hit rates have changed battlefield dynamics, introducing the concept of "precise mass" - lower-cost precision systems deployed at scale across domains including air, land, and sea. See Mike's Foreign Affairs piece on the topic here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/battles-precise-mass-technology-war-horowitz
Defense Innovation Challenges: Western bureaucratic processes severely impede military innovation, with Horowitz noting that reprogramming just 0.05% of the defense budget required over 40 congressional briefings, contrasting with Ukraine's wartime innovation speed and calling for acquisition reform.
Recommended Books:
Under the Nuclear Shadow by Fiona Cunningham
Army of None by Paul Scharre
Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman
Outtro Music:
Santigold, You'll Find a Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IodbPh7RkBw
Vampire Weekend, Walcott: https://open.spotify.com/track/0BZY839qKXibapu4S0GYE2?si=7ecc773a95ee4d62
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Jordan Schneider
4.5
277277 ratings
Note: This episode was recorded Wednesday February 26th, two days before Zelenskyy's press conference with J.D. Vance and Trump in the White House.
Shashank Joshi (Defence Editor at The Economist) and Michael Horowitz (Biden's Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities, now back at Penn) come on the show to discuss:
Ukraine's Chances on the Battlefield: We revisit J.D. Vance's tweet war with Shashank where he claims Ukraine is fated to lose, highlighting how war is nonlinear and dependent on political cohesion, economic strength, and defense industrial capacity beyond just manpower.
Trump's Pivot to Putin: We try to think through what Trump is doing with Ukraine and Russia at the strategic level and what the long term and second order consequences are.
AI and the Future of Warfare: We discuss of how AGI would transform warfare, with Horowitz suggesting progress will be incremental rather than revolutionary, emphasizing government adoption challenges over 0 to 1 technical breakthroughs.
"Precise Mass" in Combat: Ukrainian forces have demonstrated how AI-guided drones achieving 80%+ hit rates have changed battlefield dynamics, introducing the concept of "precise mass" - lower-cost precision systems deployed at scale across domains including air, land, and sea. See Mike's Foreign Affairs piece on the topic here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/battles-precise-mass-technology-war-horowitz
Defense Innovation Challenges: Western bureaucratic processes severely impede military innovation, with Horowitz noting that reprogramming just 0.05% of the defense budget required over 40 congressional briefings, contrasting with Ukraine's wartime innovation speed and calling for acquisition reform.
Recommended Books:
Under the Nuclear Shadow by Fiona Cunningham
Army of None by Paul Scharre
Billion Dollar Spy by David Hoffman
Outtro Music:
Santigold, You'll Find a Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IodbPh7RkBw
Vampire Weekend, Walcott: https://open.spotify.com/track/0BZY839qKXibapu4S0GYE2?si=7ecc773a95ee4d62
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like ChinaTalk
View all
Odd Lots
1,941 Listeners
Conversations with Tyler
2,453 Listeners
Foreign Policy Live
611 Listeners
Sinica Podcast
607 Listeners
ChinaPower
211 Listeners
The President’s Inbox
715 Listeners
The Trade Guys
147 Listeners
Net Assessment
422 Listeners
ManifoldOne
93 Listeners
Dwarkesh Podcast
508 Listeners
Pekingology
143 Listeners
Ones and Tooze
341 Listeners
The Foreign Affairs Interview
444 Listeners
"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg
153 Listeners
The Trivium China Podcast
14 Listeners