Roya Hakakian, author of Assassins of the Turquoise Palace and Journey from the Land of No, joins the show to discuss the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, and how these events have shaped the world.

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02:56 Life Before the Revolution

11:02 Antisemitism in Revolutionary Iran

21:56 Khomeini’s Rise to Power

22:32 The Global Left and the Soviet Union

29:49 A Catastrophe of the 20th Century

37:21 The State of the Iranian Regime

42:19 The Revolution is Alive and Well

52:01 The Future of Iran and Its Leadership

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Frank Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and author of Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, joins the show to discuss the promise and perils of using history to guide today’s statecraft.

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02:20 Political Science vs. History

05:37 The Importance of Historical Thinking

08:13 Historical Interpretation

11:22 Counterfactuals 

14:26 The Misuse of History in Policy Making

17:19 Thinking in Time

22:27 Errors When Thinking Historically

31:57 Putin’s View of History

40:01 Philosophical Understanding

47:05 Does History Have a Direction?

53:34 A Checklist for Historical Thinking

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Michael Pack, President and CEO of Palladium Pictures LLC and director of The Last 600 Meters: The Battles of Najaf and Fallujah, joins the show to discuss his remarkable documentary of the Iraq war and the Marines and battles that it portrays.

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01:59 The Journey of Creating 'The Last 600 Meters'

06:24 Censored

10:55 Combat and Valor 

21:06 Political Decisions and Military Strategy 

26:02 The Human Experience of War 

36:29 The Hell House

40:24 Beyond the Battlefield

45:42 Full Metal Jacket

50:45 The Withdrawal from Afghanistan: A New Perspective

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Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One,  joins the show to discuss how the British Empire maintained the balance in Europe between the fall of Napoleon to the summer of 1914.

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02:59 Studying the Problem of War

06:20 British Perspectives of the European Coast

11:33 The French Likelihood of Invading Britain 

21:40 The Scheldt River Estuary 

30:33 Marlborough, Wellington, and Eisenhower 

36:48 The 19th Century and the Rise of Steampower

47:35 Divided attention and British Mistakes of 1914

54:40 The Failure of British Strategic Off-Shore Balancing

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John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,  joins the show to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, and what it all means facing China in the Pacific.

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01:56 Strategic Implications of the War

03:24 The 28-Point Peace Plan

09:49 Challenges of Negotiating Peace

15:19 The Russia-China Connection

19:48 Nuclear Deterrence and Arms Control

29:30 Linking Ukraine and Taiwan

35:18 Ukraine War as a Chinese Proxy Conflict

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Jeremy Armstrong, Professor of Classics & Ancient History at the University of Auckland and author of Children of Mars: The Origins of Rome's Empire,  joins the show to discuss the early history of Rome, the role of family and clan in the structure of its military, the transition from monarchy to republic, and the nature of warfare during this formative period. 

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02:28 The Problems of Early History

06:05 Warfare in Early Rome: A Complex Picture

11:52 The Importance of Myths in Roman Identity

15:01 Aeneas and Romulus: Founding Figures of Rome

18:00 The Significance of Aeneas in Roman Culture

20:48 The Function of Rome

33:09 The Role of Land and Mobility in Early Rome

36:07 Understanding the Monarchy and Military Structure

42:32 Transition from Monarchy to Republic

53:26 The Impact of the Sack of Rome

1:01:27 Shifting Towards Imperial Ambitions

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Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina substack, joins the show to discuss the current state of the Ukraine war. We cover tactical innovations, the challenges of operations and strategy, the structure of the Ukrainian military, the political landscape under Zelensky, and the industrial capabilities of both Ukraine and Russia. 

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00:00 State of Play

02:28 Tactical Innovations and Challenges in Ukraine

05:38 The Role of Drones

08:36 Russian Tactical Innovations and the Rubikon Units

11:45 Historical Parallels: Lessons from World War I

14:37 The Thousand Bites Approach: Russian Strategy Explained

17:46 Ukrainian Brigade Composition and Organizational Changes

23:19 Understanding the Ukrainian Military Structure

29:47 Challenges in Casualty Ratios and Manpower

37:37 Long-Range Strike Capabilities and Adaptation

40:29 Strategic Thinking in the Ukrainian Military

46:18 Industrial Base and Support Dynamics

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Marc Milner, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick and author of Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign, joins the show to discuss the turbulent passing of the torch of Western hegemony during WWII. 

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02:50 1917

10:52 American Battle Monuments Commission

14:31 FDR and the British Empire

21:36 American views on the Nazis

30:40 FDR at the Tehran Conference

35:42 Plans Before the Invasion of France

40:48 The British Empire and National Strategy 

50:25 Churchill and the Russians in 1944

56:00 A Sophisticated Understanding of Imperial Politics

01:00:18 Revisionist Views of WWII

01:06:00 Communist and Fascist Extremism

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Nicholas Wright, neuroscientist and author of Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain, joins the show to explore the implications of neuroscience for warmaking. 

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01:20 Neurology

02:57 Intelligence Defined

07:06 Mapping the Brain

17:05 How Modeling Happens

27:15 Outthinking and Outlearning the Enemy

30:25 Prioritization and Survival

35:15 Fear and the Fall of France in 1940

44:48 Enhancing Military Training

49:47 AI and Its Impact on Human Cognition

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Host Aaron MacLean pays tribute to his father, World War Two and Vietnam Veteran Angus MacLean. This memorial originally ran in the publication Engelsberg Ideas. 

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