John Spencer is one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare. 

He currently serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirects the Urban Warfare Project, and hosts the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point.

In addition to personal experiences from 25 years as an infantry soldier and officer in the US Army, including urban battles in Iraq in 2003 and the Battle of Sadr City in 2008, he has spent over a decade researching, publishing, and lecturing on all facets of urban warfare.  

In the last five years, he has conducted research in India, Israel, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ukraine. He has served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy. He has also trained multiple militaries in urban operations. His research focuses on all military operations in dense urban areas, megacities, and urban and subterranean warfare.

In February 2022, Spencer wrote a guide, The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender, for Ukrainian citizens on how to defend their cities. The manual was translated into Ukrainian and spread widely across Ukraine. It is now available in sixteen separate languages, with many other translations in the works.

In this episode, we’ll talk with John about the difficulties of urban warfare, his time in Ukraine, his recent trip into Gaza, and much more.

More about John:

Website: JohnSpencerOnline.com

X: https://x.com/SpencerGuard

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerguard

Timestamps:

00:00:21 Intro to John Spencer

00:01:53 What is The Modern Warfare Institute?

00:03:56 Leading Academics Pushing Propaganda for Terrorist Organizations

00:05:29 Why is Urban Warfare so Hard?

00:09:21 The Battle of Stalingrad

00:10:50 Urban Legends/Myths about Modern Warfare

00:12:55 What’s Changed in Subterranean Warfare?

00:16:41 What is so Challenging About Subterranean Warfare?

00:21:25 Will People’s Perception of Russia Change?

00:25:40 General Sun-Tzu

00:26:10 Defeat Your Enemy Without Fighting

00:29:08 What Happens if Russia Wins the Propaganda War?

00:32:01 Gaza and Hamas

00:34:33 How Many Civilians are Killed in the Crossfire?

00:42:53 What if We Just Let Hamas Go?

00:48:04 Proxy Groups of Iran

00:50:12 Extreme Misogyny in Iran

00:53:15 The Spread of an Ideology

00:56:03 Eradicating Extremist Ideologies Efficiently

01:02:00 “Pay for Slay” Program

01:03:04 Independence of Gaza in 2005

01:04:00 Responsibilities of Israel for the Conditions in Gaza

01:05:11 Hamas Leadership Using Economic Oppression

01:07:55 Outro