School of War

By The Free PressBusiness Arts Books History

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Typical duration
50 min
per episode
If it hooks
56%
finish an episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

School of War episodes

February 06 Ep 272: Beatrice Heuser on Why Leaders Make Bad Decisions
Beatrice Heuser, Distinguished Professor at the Brussels School of Governance in the Free University of Brussels and author of Flawed Strategy: Why Smart Leaders Make Bad Decisions, joins the show to discuss decision-making and strategic thinking.
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Times
02:58 Economists and strategy
07:59 Acting rationally vs logically
15:00 Mirror imaging
20:01 How should we study strategy?
27:17 Denial
32:18 Strategic intelligence failures
36:15 Hidden causes
38:57 Everyone does it

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39 min
February 03 Ep 271: Geoff Ball on the Future of America’s Infantry
Geoff Ball, U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer, staff director for the Naval Academy’s Leadership Education and Development Division and Executive Editor of The Connecting File, joins the show to discuss the radical changes and surprising continuities in how America’s grunts will fight.
▪️
Times
02:25 The Connecting File
06:22 How is the infantry doing?
14:10 Companies of the future
23:22 Information and trust
29:57 Innovative spirit
33:30 Light Armored Recon
39:05 Drone battalions
42:24 Learning the right lessons from Ukraine

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43 min
January 30 Ep 270: David Shedd on China’s Spies
David Shedd, former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and author of The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets, joins the show to discuss Chinese spy craft.
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Times
02:05 Early days
06:49 CIA
09:28 Sandinistas and revolutionaries
15:14 IC preparation
18:35 A great awakening
26:11 Industrial espionage
30:50 National Intelligence Estimate
34:11 The MSS
44:19 The culture of the 18th Bureau
50:17 Battlefield consequences
55:20 Counterarguments

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1 hr 4 min
January 26 Ep 269: Walter Russell Mead on Donald and Davos and Greenland, Oh My!
Walter Russell Mead, Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft at the University of Florida's Hamilton Center and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, joins the show to discuss foreign policy in the Age of Trump.
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Times
03:15 An extraordinary week
05:06 The Transatlantic relationship
09:02 Turning to China
16:10 Greenland
27:03 Post-presidency Trump
32:25 Harder now
43:08 Zelenskyy

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52 min
January 23 Ep 268: Seth Jones on America’s Defense Industrial Crisis
Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department and Harold Brown Chair at CSIS, joins the show to talk about how America has resurrected its defense industrial base in the past and why it should be doing so now.
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Times
02:55 The British in the 1930s
05:58 Roosevelt’s decision
09:48 Re-orientation
13:59 The B-29
16:00 Victory in Iraq
27:54 Skunkworks
31:30 Xi comes into power
35:07 Disadvantages
39:07 What needs to be done?
44:28 Fighting for 5%
47:43 Culture shift
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49 min
January 20 Ep 267: Michael Lurie on Israel’s New Laser Weapon
Michael Lurie, CEO and President of Rafael USA, joins the show to explain how High Energy Lasers and Iron Beam will change missile & air defense, not to mention warfare itself, forever.
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Times
02:34 The evolution of missile defense
05:09 Iron Dome & Iron Beam
08:04 How do lasers work?
15:16 Limitations
20:07 Integrating systems
25:28 Future applications
30:09 Lessons from field testing
40:15 American interest

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45 min
January 16 Ep 266: Blake Seitz & Mike Watson—Were the Founders Isolationists?
Blake Seitz, Content Strategist at Palantir Technologies, and Mike Watson, Executive Director at The Alexander Hamilton Society, join the show to discuss America’s relationship with the world at the time of the Founding Fathers.
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Times
02:45 18th Century geopolitical landscape
06:25 Yorktown
11:17 Diplomacy of the Founders
16:23 Bold rhetoric
19:37 Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
25:45 Washington’s legacy
32:42 The roots of isolationism
36:38 Parallels and changes
44:16 What does it mean to be an American?
47:20 A grounding in history
Read more - 1776: The Beginnings of American Exceptionalism Abroad

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49 min
January 12 Ep 265: Mark Dubowitz on Is Iran Next?
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of FDD, joins the show to bring us up to speed on widespread Iranian protests, the chances of American or Israeli intervention, and what intervention might achieve.
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Times
02:15 Will we strike?
05:34 New Iran talks?
07:03 Nuclear concessions?
10:35 Intervention possibilities
15:10 The Shah’s son and the Islamic regime
24:28 How do these protests compare to the past?
34:29 Public perceptions

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36 min
January 08 Ep 264: Mark Montgomery on Seizing Venezuela’s Shadow Fleet
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 Venezuela’s shadow fleet, the cyber component of the Maduro raid, and the future of the U.S. Navy.
▪️
Times
03:04 Shadow Fleets
06:06 Ship Hunting
10:07 Coast Guard
12:35 Leverage and Sanctions
18:37 Planning the Maduro Raid
24:57 How We Use Cyber
28:45 Types of Risk
31:50 State of the Navy
36:56 Return of the Battleship?

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40 min
January 05 Ep 263: Elliott Abrams on the Venezuela Raid and Risks Ahead
Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran from 2019 to 2021, joins the show to discuss Venezuela and what might happen next.
▪️
Times
02:04 Snatch and Grab
05:50 Intelligence Operations
12:04 Oil
16:50 Holding the Country Together
24:16 Risks & Mistakes
30:48 Blockade
33:54 Hard To Leave
39:11 Not Iraq
41:48 Cuba
42:21 The Iranian Regime

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46 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.