School of War

By The Free PressBusiness Arts Books History

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50 min
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School of War episodes

September 15 What War Teaches Us—If We Survive It
People think retired Army Major John Spencer lost part of his ear in combat. He didn’t; he lost it in a fight behind a bar that cost him his spot in the Army Rangers. Spencer went on to serve repeatedly in combat and become one of the country’s leading experts on urban warfare. He joins Aaron MacLean to discuss his origin story and other anecdotes from his new book, Twenty Times I Almost Died, as well as why he thinks the U.S. “is clearly winning” the war in Iran.
3:30 War With Iran
9:43 Battle of Hormuz
10:42 Wartime Stockpiles
12:32 The Stakes of Failure
15:34 Losing His Ear
23:34 Losing the Rangers
25:51 Resilience
28:58 Invading Iraq
33:59 Common Sense in Combat
39:08 The IED Trap
44:25 Battle of Marjah
51:01 Gangs of Baghdad
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.
This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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1 hr 3 min
September 11 ‘We Are Going to War’: H.R. McMaster Remembers 9/11
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster was on the phone with the Pentagon when the plane struck the building on September 11, 2001. “I thought, Okay, we are going to war,” he recalls. Twenty-five years after 9/11, McMaster joins Aaron MacLean to discuss the wars that followed. Drawing on his experience as a wartime commander and national security adviser, McMaster explains why he considers Afghanistan a self-defeat, how American withdrawal helped enable the rise of ISIS in Iraq, and why he thinks the latest Iran ceasefire was “a big mistake.”

4:39 McMaster on 9/11
7:27 Adapting to Iraq
12:33 Lessons From Iraq
15:13 Counterinsurgency’s Legacy
21:19 The Post-9/11 Wars
23:23 Afghanistan’s “Self-Defeat”
25:07 When America Leaves
29:53 Sustaining Afghanistan
32:14 Defending the Afghan Mission
35:37 The Axis of Aggressors
44:41 Trump’s Messaging About the War
49:07 Politics in the 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.

This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
57 min
September 08 Ten-Minute Warning: The Hypersonic Threat
A Chinese hypersonic missile targeting either U.S. coast would leave room for “about 10 minutes of warning time.” Zachary Krevor, CEO of Stratolaunch, is building vehicles to help the Pentagon learn to detect, track, and intercept this threat. Today, Krevor joins School of War to explain how China and Russia have outpaced the U.S. in hypersonic weapons testing, why AI-enabled missile “swarms” may be on the horizon, and what it will take for America to defend itself against them.
2:32 What Makes a Weapon Hypersonic?
4:47 The Real-Life Top Gun: Maverick
6:14 From Model Airplanes to Hypersonics
9:09 Why America Stopped Investing in Hypersonics
10:55 Two Types of Hypersonic Weapons
14:09 Glide Bodies vs. Cruise Missiles
15:44 Surviving the Heat of Mach 5
20:20 Testing America’s Hypersonic Technology
23:20 China and Russia’s Hypersonic Advantage
25:24 How to Stop a Hypersonic Missile
29:09 The Coming Age of Hypersonic Swarms
40:38 Can Golden Dome Stop Hypersonic Weapons?

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
45 min
September 04 What to Expect When You’re Expecting Great Power Conflict
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.

This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
56 min
September 01 Shot Down over Serbia: General Goldfein’s Incredible Story
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
1 hr 4 min
August 28 Our Foreign Policy Divide Began with the Korean War
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
41 min
August 25 Inside America’s Fight for Drone Dominance
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
1 hr 12 min
August 21 When Terrorists Become the Heroes to Young Americans
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.
3:09 America and Revolutionary Russia
3:47 The Rise of Modern Terrorism
4:38 When Terrorism Became a Respected Profession
6:10 Why Terrorists Had So Much Power
6:22 Why Russian Liberals Failed to Oppose Terrorism
7:26 The Danger of Celebrating Political Violence
9:36 Dostoevsky’s Radical Youth
11:31 Dostoevsky’s Arrest and Mock Execution
13:15 Understanding the Psychology of Revolutionaries
14:29 How Dostoevsky Predicted Totalitarianism
17:55 Why Communism Was Worse Than the Czars
20:11 Why Liberals Must Oppose Extremism
22:02 The Psychology of Left-Wing Totalitarianism
24:53 What Young People Don’t Know About Communism
28:16 How Good People Come to Support Evil
34:06 What Left and Right-Wing Extremists Have in Common
36:17 How Do We Fight Political Extremism?
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
42 min
August 18 Senator McCormick Thinks That America’s Military Is Stuck in the Past
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
47 min
August 14 Tanks vs. Drones
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
59 min

About School of War

From the publisher's feed

In School of War, CBS News National Security Analyst and Free Press columnist Aaron MacLean sits down with secretaries of state, top military historians, war planners, and key political decision-makers to help understand the lessons of war.