Prit Buttar, historian and author of Bagration 1944: The Great Soviet Offensive, joins the show to discuss the immense Russian campaign that broke the German Army on the Eastern Front.    

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    •      01:48 Introduction

    •      02:50 A war unto itself

    •      08:02 Flanders        

    •      15:20 Maskirovka

    •      24:35 Soviet intelligence         

    •      28:27 Bolshevism        

    •      30:22 Lebensraum     

    •      31:40 Bagration        

    •      36:14 Cracking the line       

    •      39:00 Warsaw

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Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow, China Studies, at the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and principal investigator for the Mapping China's Borderlands: Dashboard, joins the show to discuss the shifting visions China has of its frontiers. 

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    •      01:35 Introduction

    •      02:34 What is “China?”

    •      10:26 Sovereignty        

    •      19:30 Double translation

    •      25:25 Capillaries        

    •      34:37 Imperial messaging       

    •      42:36 Prioritization       

We also discuss Nadège’s 2020 report - China's Vision for a New World Order.

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Brad Bowman and Ryan Brobst, senior and deputy directors of the Center on Military and Political Power at FDD, join the show to discuss the military relationships between America’s major antagonists.

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    •      01:47 Introduction

    •      02:40 Axis cooperation

    •      08:02 Interoperability       

    •      11:19 Fighting all three

    •      14:49 Potential       

    •      20:57 The arsenal       

    •      26:56 Progress

    •      28:30 Budgeting 

    •      36:10 Will and capability        

    •      39:03 Harpoon Coastal Defense System      

    •      41:31 Per unit cost over speed

    •      44:25 Buy-side issue

    •      47:49 Production lessons

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Yaakov Katz, senior fellow at The Jewish People Policy Institute and author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, joins the show to discuss Israel’s intelligence and military failures on the night of 6-7 October, 2023.

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    •      01:35 Introduction

    •      02:47 Foundational facts

    •      09:45 Communication failure      

    •      17:39 Minority reports

    •      25:40 Left alone       

    •      30:15 Accountability      

    •      39:37 Cultural costs

    •      47:30 A deal

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Geoffrey Wawro, founding director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and author of The Vietnam War: A Military History,  joins the show to discuss the causes of U.S. failure in Vietnam.

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    •      01:21 Introduction

    •      01:50 Schools of thought

    •      07:45 Orthodoxy      

    •      13:24 A war of choice

    •      17:49 Ambivalence       

    •      20:15 Korean nightmare      

    •      23:53 Lessons

    •      28:38 Policy makers

    •      32:34 Obvious flaws   

    •      37:10 Ground war

    •      42:21 South Vietnam 

    •      51:30 Certain defeat

    •      56:21 Local politics

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Major Geoff Ball, USMC, co-founder of the Connecting File, commanded Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines during the evacuation at Kabul International Airport in 2021, including the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate on 26 August. He shares the story of his company and their extraordinary service in Afghanistan.

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    •      01:51 Introduction

    •      02:03 The Marines

    •      08:20 Quantico     

    •      13:07 29 Palms

    •      16:32 On the job training      

    •      21:54 Ghost Company      

    •      26:44 The call

    •      32:10 Isolation

    •      38:30 Abbey Gate   

    •      46:16 Unity of effort 

    •      48:53 Who got through 

    •      51:40 The Taliban

    •      52:54 26 August

    •      56:52 Take command 

    •      59:47 No good choices

    •      01:06:42 The Fallen

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Barry Strauss, Corliss Page Dean Fellow at the Hoover Institution and author of Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire, joins the show to discuss the long, fractious, often violent relationship between Ancient Rome and her Jewish subjects. 

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    •      01:11 Introduction

    •      01:37 Rome and Parthia

    •      07:50 Judea    

    •      12:07 Roman control 

    •      17:58 Jewish warfighting       

    •      20:20 Herod     

    •      26:03 The Great Revolt

    •      31:06 Enter Parthia

    •      33:23 The Temple   

    •      35:01 70 years 

    •      40:24 Driven out 

    •      42:02 Parallels with today

    •      44:33 Donald Kagan

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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 break down the latest on Ukraine, from the battlefield to the White House. 

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   •       01:05 Introduction

    •      02:06 The front

    •      06:23 Fortress belt   

    •      08:38 ROI 

    •      10:55 Shifting feelings       

    •      14:41 A realistic settlement     

    •      20:53 After Alaska

    •      23:15 Boots on the ground

    •      25:45 Unpredictability     

    •      28:49 A different vibe 

    •      31:31 Stop the killing

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Colonel Peter Mansoor, U.S. Army (retired), General Raymond E. Mason Jr. Chair in Military History at The Ohio State University and authors of Redemption: MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines, joins the show to discuss the largest campaign of the Pacific War, the liberation of the Philippines. 

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    •      01:08 Introduction

    •      01:30 Why West Point?

    •      06:11 Petraeus   

    •      09:55 A huge scale 

    •      11:25 War Plan Orange       

    •      16:25 Inevitable     

    •      20:07 The guerrilla war

    •      26:53 Mindanao & Luzon

    •      31:33 Leyte Gulf    

    •      37:52 A do or die campaign 

    •      40:04 Manila 

    •      44:34 Command responsibility 

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Joel Wuthnow and Phillip Saunders, both of the  U.S. National Defense University and authors of China's Quest for Military Supremacy, join the show to discuss the origins, organization, and strategic outlook of China’s military. 

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    •      01:22 Introduction

    •      01:57 Origins

    •      06:58 Crisis control   

    •      08:48 PLA structure 

    •      13:05 1960       

    •      20:17 Horizontal escalation    

    •      24:34 By land or sea

    •      28:23 American resolve

    •      30:54 Xi    

    •      36:41 A lack of experience 

    •      44:10 Military diplomacy

    •      48:17 Reading list

    •      50:43 Be unpredictable

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