Tom Cotton, U.S. senator from Arkansas and author of Seven Things You Can't Say About China, joins the show to talk about the CCP’s global designs.

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Times 

    •      01:48 Introduction

    •      02:30 Paying attention

    •     05:38 Bipartisan

    •      08:38 Early days  

    •     13:54 Strategic delays    

    •      16:13 An evil empire  

    •      18:45 “What’s it to us?”  

    •     22:04 Lynchpin   

    •      25:24 Splitting the axis 

    •      28:39 China and Ukraine

    •      34:00 More dangerous

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Sean McMeekin, Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College and author of To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, joins the show to talk about Communist approaches to foreign policy and war.

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Times 

    •      01:35 Introduction

    •      02:39 Communism and war

    •     11:02 Giving history a shove   

    •      16:41 Lenin’s vision  

    •     20:55 A united front    

    •      25:54 Infiltration  

    •      28:45 Stalin at the helm  

    •     34:51 Ups and downs   

    •      41:10 Driving a wedge 

    •      43:37 “We resemble them more than they resemble us…”

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Michael Cook, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and author of A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity, joins the show to discuss the sudden, explosive Arab expansion of the 7th century. 

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Times 

    •     01:46 Introduction

    •     03:05 Sources

    •     04:42 War and politics   

    •     07:32 Grass and sand  

    •     09:30 Self-defense    

    •     12:21 Ibn Khaldun 

    •     16:11 An Arab identity  

    •     18:45 Knock on effects   

    •     26:40 Two targets 

    •     28:32 The Arab way of war  

    •     34:50 Coming out of the desert   

    •     38:48 Civil war 

    •     42:27 Jihad

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Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, joins the show to discuss how both sides have lost the Ukraine War, and the risks of various routes to peace.

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Times 

    •      02:47 Pressuring Putin

    •      12:50 A new path

    •     17:07 Avoiding a debacle   

    •      32:43 Friends

    •     38:30 Realignment

    •      46:58 Articulating strategy

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Phillips O’Brien, chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War, joins the show to discuss the nature of strategic decision making in World War II and beyond.

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Times 

    •      01:50 Introduction

    •      02:48 Germany 1st debunked

    •     06:50 A matter of choices  

    •      08:20 Management styles  

    •     11:23 FDR the navalist   

    •      14:42 Strategic balance

    •      16:52 The British Empire  

    •      18:58 Churchill the shapeshifter     

    •      26:42 Britain’s place

    •      29:22 Casablanca 

    •      33:54 Making Hitler

    •      38:43 Firepower + racial superiority 

    •      42:41 Delaying defeat

    •      44:55 A childish view of war 

    •      46:50 Human decisions

    •      48:28 Stalin the survivor

    •      51:30 “Not nice people”

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Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at FDD and retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, joins the show to discuss how prepared (or ill-prepared) the U.S. is for cyber warfare.

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Times 

    •      03:24 Introduction

    •      04:20 America: A Target Rich Environment

    •     05:59 Cyber and mobilization  

    •      08:35 What actually happens? 

    •      11:36 Automation   

    •      16:18 Salt and volt typhoon

    •      22:04 Continuity of the economy  

    •      28:33 Offense    

    •      35:05 Cyber responses

    •      38:43 Public opinion 

    •      41:43 Defense of the homeland

    •      49:30 A new kind of leader

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Christopher Kolakowski, director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and editor of Tenth Army Commander: The World War II Diary of Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., joins the show to discuss the most senior U.S. officer killed by enemy action in WWII, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. 

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Times 

    •      01:44 Introduction

    •      02:15 In the shadows

    •     03:53 Fathers and sons 

    •      06:28 Childhood 

    •      09:30 West Point Commandant of Cadets   

    •      16:03 Alaska ’41

    •      20:18 The Japanese threat 

    •      24:20 10th Army   

    •      29:03 Notes for an unwritten memoir

    •      31:02 Operation Causeway

    •      35:47 Okinawa

    •      41:52 Attrition

    •      43:50 Another Anzio?

    •      50:57 Homeward bound

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David Betz, Professor of War in the Modern World at King’s College London and author of The Guarded Age: Fortification in the Twenty-First Century, joins the show to discuss how fortification is alive, well, and everywhere. 

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Times 

    •      01:22 Introduction

    •      01:53 A default condition

    •     13:20 Why is that there? 

    •      22:13 Alexandrian foundations 

    •      28:50 Security and mobility    

    •      39:53 The pendulum swings

    •      48:54 Intrigue  

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Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army and author of War Transformed: The Future of Twenty-First-Century Great Power Competition and Conflict, joins the show to discuss future-war fiction and the possible futures of current wars.

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Times 

    •      01:23 Introduction

    •      02:10 Tom Clancy

    •     05:40 Accessibility 

    •      07:14 The Battle of Dorking 

    •      09:57 White Sun War   

    •      13:39 Diplomatic failures

    •      15:40 Friction 

    •      18:50 Israel transformed   

    •      23:00 Existential threats

    •      25:25 Ukraine

    •      32:31 Pressuring Putin   

    •      35:01 Taiwan and Japan

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Hal Brands, Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World, joins the show to discuss the continued relevance of geopolitics.

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Times 

    •      01:29 Introduction

    •      01:54 Twentieth century

    •     03:29 Advent of geopolitical theory

    •      07:08 Land versus sea 

    •      13:09 Authoritarianism   

    •      17:40 Struggle for power

    •      20:30 Burdens of defense 

    •      23:25 Eurasia   

    •      27:50 Different politics

    •      36:09 “…a kind of American realism” 

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