When it comes to world superpowers, Cambridge historian Brendan Simms argues there are only four that matter—and two of them are fading. Today, Simms joins Aaron MacLean to argue that Britain still belongs among the world’s leading powers; why its place among them is “by no means guaranteed”; and why Hitler is no longer the absolute evil against which people define themselves.

4:08 The Four R’s of Great Power

4:29 Defining Great Power

8:09 Iran’s Regional Power

11:44 The Great Powers Return

15:39 The Cold War

17:44 Europe Wakes Up

21:45 American Unipolarity Ends

25:16 Britain’s Great-Power Claim

35:47 The New World Order

38:26 Realism’s Blind Spots

42:07 Losing Postwar Optimism

45:53 A “Post-Hitler World”

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of Air Force General David Goldfein, who miraculously survived after his plane was shot down over Serbia in 1999, has since become military legend. Today, he joins School of War to recount the harrowing rescue mission that saved him, how he stayed alive  behind enemy lines, and the lessons his remarkable career offers about leadership, airpower, and preparing America for the next war.

2:43 An Air Force Family

3:25 Rejected by the Air Force Academy

6:39 Becoming an F-16 Pilot

8:12 What Makes a Great Fighter Pilot?

12:36 Information Overload in Combat

15:28 Goldfein’s First Combat Mission

19:57 Training for Confidence Under Fire

21:37 A Leadership Lesson from the Gulf War

24:32 Shot Down Over Serbia

28:51 Surviving Behind Enemy Lines

31:48 The Race to Rescue Goldfein

36:22 Guiding the Rescue Helicopter

44:50 The Impact on His Family

48:53 Witnessing the Attack on the Pentagon

51:19 Digitizing the American Military

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 75 years after the Korean War, its lessons endure—and divisions over isolationism and American power continue to shape the discourse around modern global conflicts. Dane J. Cash, historian and author of The Forgotten Debate: The Korean War and the Roots of America's Ideological Divisions, joins School of War to explain how the left’s hawk-dove divide during the Korean War foreshadowed the neoconservative break from the liberal consensus during the 1970s and why the political battles of the early Cold War continue to splinter America today.

2:10 America Before the Korean War

3:08 The Debate Over Containment

4:15 Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism

5:29 Did Acheson Invite the War?

8:23 Why North Korea Attacked

8:55 Conservative Criticism of Truman

11:10 Liberal Divisions Over Korea

13:30 The Roots of Neoconservatism

17:14 Truman’s Lonely Middle Ground

19:51 The Right’s Foreign Policy Split

22:05 Taft, Eisenhower, and the GOP

22:58 MacArthur’s Moment

25:31 China Enters the War

30:37 Herbert Hoover’s Foreign Policy Revolt

33:51 Stalemate, POWs, and Ukraine Parallels

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. military needs more drones, and it needs to build them without Chinese parts. Today, Defense Innovation Unit Deputy Director Travis Metz joins School of War to discuss how America can build drones quickly, cheaply, and on U.S. soil; what America can learn from Ukraine’s drone war; and the Pentagon’s new billion-dollar effort to upgrade its aging military technology.

2:23 - Why America Is Behind on Drones

4:32 - The Drone Dominance Program

6:51 - Breaking Dependence on China

10:23 - The Different Types of Drones

13:34 - Ukraine’s Mid-Range Strike Revolution

16:00 - Cheap Drones at Long Range

18:47 - AI, Autonomy, and Electronic Warfare

21:47 - How Drone Dominance Works

24:33 - Building an American Drone Industry

33:55 - Lessons From Fort Benning

39:19 - Cheap and Expendable Drones

42:01 - Testing Drones for Different Missions

50:14 - The Next Phase of Drone Dominance

55:09 - How Many Drones Does America Need?

1:02:49 - Recreating Ukraine’s Innovation Cycle

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In prerevolutionary Russia, it was not uncommon for children to dream of becoming terrorists when they grew up. “It was a respected profession,” says Northwestern University professor Gary Saul Morson, who now sees troubling parallels between modern-day America and an era in Russia when terrorism became fashionable and radicals came to see violence as an expression of moral virtue. Today, Morson joins School of War to discuss what Fyodor Dostoyevsky understood about the terrorist mind, why good people can be persuaded to support terrible acts, and what America loses when it stops teaching the history of communism in schools.

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pennsylvania senator Dave McCormick, a West Point graduate, Desert Storm veteran, and former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, is concerned about America’s wealth gap, which he says is approaching “a version of capitalism I don’t think we want.” Today, McCormick joins School of War for a candid conversation about why the right needs a better answer to socialism, lessons in modern warfare from his recent closed-door meeting with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, and why he regrets his 2002 LA Times op-ed supporting the Iraq War: “I was completely wrong.”

02:01 — From Desert Storm to Princeton

05:05 — Nine Months Traveling the World

06:58 — The “End of History” and the Return of Socialism

08:00 — Can America Remain the World’s Superpower?

09:47 — Is the U.S. Military Stuck in the Past?

12:27 — What Ukraine Is Teaching America About Modern Warfare

13:41 — Rebuilding America’s Defense Industrial Base

17:15 — America’s AI Race With China

22:56 — How AI Will Transform American Jobs

24:03 — Wealth Inequality and the Future of Capitalism

25:56 — Why Socialism Is Appealing to Young Americans

30:52 — The Fight Over AI Data Centers

35:05 — Iran and the Future of the Middle East

41:17 — McCormick: “I Was Completely Wrong” About Iraq

44:08 — Balancing Iran With the Threat From China

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the tank obsolete? As drones and precision strikes transform modern battlefields, some have predicted that armored vehicles may soon meet the fate of the cavalry charge. Today on School of War, Colonel Jose A. Reyes and Lieutenant Colonel David “Cam” Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division make the opposite case. Drawing on their experience operating and commanding tanks, they join Aaron MacLean to explain how armored vehicles are adapting to an increasingly drone-centric battlefield—and why the future of warfare may still belong to the cavalry.

3:18 — Reyes and Smith’s Backgrounds

8:40 — The History of Tanks and Maneuver

11:15 — Is the Tank Obsolete?

12:43 — “The Tank Is Alive and Well”

15:17 — Combined Arms at Every Echelon

20:12 — Transforming Armored Warfare

27:02 — The Battlefield Data Problem

30:01 — Ukrainian Innovation and Battlefield Data

33:25 — Electronic Warfare and FPV Drones

38:13 — Cheap Drones and the Cost of Defense

42:44 — Armor and the Problem of Attrition

43:49 — The Future of Unmanned Armor

46:51 — Unmanned Resupply and Medevac

48:25 — Casualty Evacuation in Ukraine

52:16 — What the Army Needs Next

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As war in Ukraine grinds towards its fifth year and tensions strain the transatlantic alliance, former British prime minister Boris Johnson says he remains convinced that the West has the power to prevail: “Putin has got to lose.” Today, Johnson joins School of War to discuss how the West can bring the Russian president to the negotiating table, why Europe’s dream of “strategic autonomy” is a “sham, a snare and a delusion,” and why he believes predictions of American decline and Chinese dominance have it backward.

02:20 — When Boris Johnson Knew Putin Would Invade Ukraine

05:46 — Why Europe Didn’t Believe an Invasion Was Coming

09:12 — Did Boris Johnson Stop a Ukraine-Russia Peace Deal?

11:19 — Could Ukraine Trade Land for Peace?

13:43 — What Johnson Saw on Ukraine’s Front Lines

17:06 — How Economic Warfare Could Pressure Putin

18:00 — “Putin Has Got to Lose”

20:00 — The Growing Divide Between America and Europe

22:19 — Can Britain Still Defend Itself?

26:20 —  JD Vance’s Critique of Europe

30:12 — Britain, Free Speech, and the Culture War

34:39 — Can Europe Achieve “Strategic Autonomy”?

39:07 — Why America Should Still Care About NATO

41:01 — The Fight Over the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia

46:12 — Why Johnson Is Still Betting on America Over China

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the American right and left are increasingly pulled toward their ideological extremes, many politicians have chosen to appease the loudest voices in their coalitions even when those voices flirt with or openly embrace antisemitism. Senator Ted Cruz says he’s done playing nice. “If we do not defeat this poison,” he warns, “I believe it will consume the Republican Party just like it has consumed the Democratic Party.” Today, Cruz joins School of War to discuss his strategy for bringing down Iran’s regime, what Tucker Carlson’s splinter from the mainstream right means for conservative politics, and the battle he believes will define the future of the Republican Party. 

02:08 - The State of Iran After the War

02:46 - Why Trump Struck Iran

04:13 - Why the MOU Was a Disaster

05:39 - The Post That Triggered an Iranian Bot Campaign

07:24 - Why Cruz Opposed the Iran Deal

08:57 - America’s Next Move in Iran

09:29 - Why the Goal Should Be Regime Collapse

12:01 - Cruz’s Strategy to Bring Down the Regime

13:08 - Why He Wants to Arm Iranian Protesters

15:22 - The Future of America’s Foreign Policy

16:27 - Is the Democratic Party Being Taken Over?

21:32 - The Rise of Antisemitism on the Right

22:50 - Why Tucker Carlson Is “Dangerous”

24:06 - “We Have to Defeat This Poison”

26:34 - Could Tucker Carlson Run for President?

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yuri Fedorenko has spent four years turning a volunteer rifle company into the 429th “Achilles” Brigade, one of the most lethal units in Ukraine’s Defense Forces. Today,  he joins School of War to discuss how the battlefield has evolved since Russia’s full-scale invasion: improvising with commercial drones in 2022, scaling a unit that now hunts targets at an unprecedented scale, what life is like on the front lines, and what the U.S. military can learn from his unit’s drone revolution.

This interview was originally conducted in Ukrainian and has been translated and dubbed into English.

02:23 – Yuri Fedorenko on Returning to War

05:08 – Building a Volunteer Unit Overnight

07:37 – Discovering the Power of Drones

09:18 – The Birth of Achilles

11:14 – Ukraine's Drone Revolution

13:12 – How the Unmanned Systems Force Works

17:43 – Why Drone Forces Punch Above Their Weight

18:59 – Inside Russia's Rubicon Drone Unit

21:35 – Beating Rubicon

23:04 – Lessons America Must Learn From Ukraine

25:29 – Why the West Should Train in Ukraine

26:54 – Why 20th Century Warfare Is Obsolete

27:20 – Drones Alone Cannot Win Wars

28:14 – Ukraine's Final Message to America

This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices