School of War

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Iran Program and a senior fellow specializing in Iranian security and political issues, returns to School of War to discuss the latest round of fighting between Israel and Iran. Why did this latest wave of Iranian missile attacks feel different? Why does a weakened Iran seem emboldened? Where is the regime most vulnerable? And will politics in Washington prevent the U.S. from doing what is necessary to stop it?

02:30 - Israel in Southern Lebanon

04:37 - Iran's Missile Barrage Against Israel

06:20 - FPV Drone Warfare in Lebanon

08:30 - A New Iranian Strategy?

12:16 - Cover for Terror Proxies

14:14 - The Danger of a Weakened Iran

17:44 - The Nazi Germany Comparison

21:00 - The Wehrmacht's Last Stand

22:07 - Iran's Reaction to Pressure

25:09 - Targets in Iran and Israel

30:15 - Where Is Iran Most Vulnerable?

31:47 - The Iran-Iraq War Analogy

32:44 - Exploiting Divisions in Iran

35:09 - Political Obstacles to Maximum Pressure

38:17 - Trump's Record on Iran Policy

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Anthony Vinci—co-founder and CEO of Vico, an AI company that empowers judgment and analysis in finance and national security, and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution—joins School of War to discuss the technological evolution of spycraft. How does an intelligence officer operate in a world of rapidly advancing technology? What happens when machines begin to assist, or even replace, human judgment? And are we being spied on constantly?

02:33 - The Job of an Intelligence Officer

03:43 - Technology and Intelligence Work

05:58 - Living Under Surveillance

07:43 - AI as an Intelligence Analyst

09:37 - The Origins of American Intelligence

10:15 - Who Was Wild Bill Donovan?

12:37 - The Modern Intelligence Community

14:25 - The Evolution of Spy Technology

16:39 - The Intelligence Gap Before 9/11

18:58 - A Mossad Chief's Critique

23:10 - The Fourth Intelligence Revolution

25:02 - AI and Autonomy

27:49 - Are We All Being Spied On?

30:05 - China's Political Warfare

34:00 - The COVID Intelligence Failure

39:59 - The Dangers of AI Language Models

48:37 - TikTok and Surveillance

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Rep. Michael Baumgartner, who represents Washington’s 5th Congressional District, joins the show from Singapore at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. What was the tone and significance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech? How are the Asian economies fairing in lieu of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? And what is the future of the American-led order in East Asia?

03:07 - Tone of the Shangri-La Dialogue

05:30 - Asia and the Strait of Hormuz

09:35 - The UAE's Distance from Iran

11:47 - America's Role in Asian Security

13:06 - Asia's Reaction to Trump's China Summit

15:25 - The Diversity of Asia

16:54 - Pete Hegseth's Speech

19:07 - The CCP's Control of China

20:59 - Korean and Japanese Views on China

24:07 - Drones and Autonomous Warfare

24:50 - Vietnam's Reinvention

28:07 - Singapore-U.S. Relations

30:21 - Paused Arms Sales

34:00 - Iran and Electoral Politics

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Matti Friedman is an award-winning journalist and columnist at The Free Press. He joins the show to discuss his latest book, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe. Whom were the Zionist Jews fighting on behalf of the British during World War II? What happened to the legendary Zionist figure Hannah Senesh? And how did a war story without battlefield success help give birth to a nation?

01:45 - The scene in British Mandate Palestine

07:30 - British MI9 unit

07:38 - Jewish military units

08:41 - Rescue missions into Europe

14:21 - Secret meeting in Tel Aviv

17:29 - Palestinian Jews’ view of European Jewry

21:51 - Hannah Senesh

24:46 - Parachuting technology in WWII

26:44 - Sword of Honour trilogy

29:48 - Discrimination against Jewish agents in Europe

32:54 - Chaos at the end of WWII

34:13 - Hannah Senesh’s doomed mission

43:10 - The escape of Hannah’s mother

47:43 - The importance of heroes and myths

49:06 - Understanding Zionism

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Jake Sullivan, former U.S. national security adviser under President Joe Biden, Kissinger professor of the practice of statecraft and world order at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-host of The Long Game podcast, joins School of War to discuss geopolitics through the lens of today’s Democratic Party. Where do Democrats stand on China, Israel, Iran, and the war in Ukraine?

02:29 - China summit recap

04:03 - President Trump’s goals in China

05:44 - Taiwan threat level

08:50 - Democratic Party position on China

14:16 - Avoiding war with China

16:39 - Nature of competition with China

18:39 - Role of AI in power struggle

23:44 - Critique of Trump’s Iran policy

27:17 - Democratic Party position on Iran

32:30 - Iran’s nuclear program

35:25 - Democratic Party position on Israel

45:15 - Russia-Ukraine conflict

51:12 - Democratic Party restraint policies

52:56 - Weapon systems assistance for Ukraine

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Sir Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and columnist at The Free Press, joins the show in front of a live audience to discuss the perilous moment we find ourselves in and how it all relates to history. What is the status of the Iran war? What is influencing President Donald Trump’s policymaking? How do we defeat a dangerous wave of “anti-history”? And are we on the brink of a world war, a cold war, or something in between?

03:35 - Historical analogies for today

09:51 - Short war illusion

15:14 - We’re in a Cold War II

18:12 - Putin’s essay from 2021

19:50 - Russia-Ukraine war

25:29 - The American mythos of WWII

26:58 - Anti-history

30:04 - The life work of Bill Buckley

31:37 - Return of antisemitism and socialism

32:52 - President Trump’s worldview

36:37 - The war in Iran

47:45 - The new state of warfighting

53:53 - President Trump’s treatment of Ukraine

57:17 - Risks of Taiwan conflict

01:03:57 - Limits to air power

01:06:58 - Reversal of historical revisionism

01:12:30 - Story about Aaron’s father

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Christian Brose, president and chief strategy officer of Anduril Industries and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, joins the show to help us evaluate American performance against Iran so far and discuss the state of defense innovation in America. What is on the cutting edge? Where are we falling behind? And what happens if the war comes home? 

Times:

01:58 - Audit of Operation Epic Fury

05:04 - Munitions and weapons shortages

08:30 - New lower-cost weapons

10:56 - The Barracuda cruise missile system

15:04 - Lessons from the battlefield

15:41 - Missile defense systems

21:47 - Software, data, and AI

24:39 - Homeland defense

27:02 - Containerization

28:05 - Industrial capacity

31:36 - Bringing Americans back into defense manufacturing

34:43 - The defense budget

39:02 - Anduril fundraising

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Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition and the Tikvah Fund, joins the show to discuss Israel, Iran, and the new power dynamics in the Middle East. What new alliances have emerged since the chaos on October 7, 2023? How has the current war with Iran reshaped the region? With a storm of competing interests, fragile partnerships, and global stakes, can stability emerge, or is the Middle East heading toward an even wider conflict?

02:10 - Israel today

04:02- Israeli airport security

05:58 - Netanyahu’s domestic political situation

09:07 - Bibi’s secret visit to the UAE

10:15 - American military aircrafts in Israel

12:01 - Israel-UAE relationship

15:57- October 7th Middle East aftermath

17:17 - Erosion of Iranian proxies

19:20 - Israeli-Saudi relationship

20:27 - Egypt’s global decline

22:24 - Turkey’s role

29:09 - Israel-Lebanon relationship

28:30 - Hezbollah factor

32:25 - How to handle Hamas

36:31 - Iran and the future of the Strait of Hormuz

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Sam Brownback, former Kansas senator and governor, co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit, and author of China’s War on Faith, joins School of War to discuss the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of religious minorities and how its domestic oppression shapes America’s broader strategic posture toward China. How is Beijing using the digital revolution as a tool of political control? Should freedom of religion be treated as a central front in the U.S.-China rivalry? With President Trump currently in China for a summit with President Xi Jinping, the world is watching a clash that extends beyond economics and military power into a conflict over faith, freedom, and the moral future of humanity.

Times:

03:25 - Trump’s China summit

05:25 - Clash of civilizations

06:18 - History of Christianity in China

08:41 - Governor’s transformative past

11:07- Systems of communism

15:53 - Chinese surveillance technology

17:22 - Peter Xu history

19:40 - Dangers of the CCP

20:53 - Treatment of religious minorities

26:12 - Technologies for oppression

29:00 - Trump’s handling of disentanglement

32:25 - American religious freedom

35:20 - The Falun Gong

37:46 - Confrontation vs. accommodation 

42:59 - Story of Wang Chun Yan

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Dan Blumenthal, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, joins the show to discuss the president’s upcoming summit in Beijing with President Xi Jinping. What are President Trump’s goals? How will war with Iran affect the meeting? And what do these discussions mean for the future of conflict in the Indo-Pacific?

02:12 Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping

03:38 Trump’s goals at summit

04:48 China’s leverage over Iran

05:57 China’s principal interest in the Middle East

08:14 U.S. sanctions on Iran and China

10:22 China’s diversified energy imports

13:05 American-Chinese competition

15:34 Defense industrial base issues

16:03 AI factor

16:34 China’s industrial leverage

19:05 Economic showdown

24:43 The Taiwan issue

26:22 Global conflict lessons for Taiwan

28:46 Division of Taiwanese politics

31:46 Stakes for the future

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