While trade wars hog the headlines ahead of next week's historic meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, it's the potential of a real, kinetic war over Taiwan that's occupying the minds of military analysts the world over. 

Xi has called the reunification of Taiwan and China 'inevitable' and necessary for the realisation of his 'China Dream.' But America has a historic obligation to come to Taiwan's aid if it were attacked militarily. So what would happen if an unstoppable force were to meet an immovable object, some say as soon as 2027? Who would win, and how would it play out? 

Dr. Oriana Skylar Mastro is one of the west's leading analysts of China and author of Upstart: How China Became a Great Power. She also advises the Pentagon, though she's talking to Tom and Patrick in a personal capacity. 

Further listening:

China’s power: The PLA vs the USA (Part 1)

China’s power: How Xi is running rings around the West (Part 2)

Host: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Guest: Oriana Skylar Mastro

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: Reuters

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While Nato looks up at the skies to Russian drones buzzing its airspace, a far more serious threat lurks below, on our ocean beds. And evidence is mounting that Moscow is already mapping the frontlines in a putative, deniable, attack. As our guest, the former British Defence Secretary, John Hutton, tells Tom, undersea cables are the means by which the economy and society itself survives. And they are vulnerable to sabotage in the form of 'accidental' cutting by shadow-shipping vessels. This could, at a stroke, kill the UK's sources of data, disabling banking, business, communications, and even the UK's 'ability to defend itself.' John Hutton is now a member of the House of Lords and sits on the National Security Strategy committee. Last month, it published a report into the potentially 'catastrophic' consequences of just such an attack and laid bare the UK's lack of preparedness. As John tells us, this would be a 'world of utter chaos, where civil order hangs by a thread.' And hoping for the best, while failing to plan for the worst, would be an absolute derogation of duty on the part of the Government. 

Host: Tom Newton Dunn 

Guest: John Hutton

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: DW News, 60 Minutes, CBC News

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Further reading: Joint Committee on National Security Strategy Report: “Subsea telecommunications cables: resilience and crisis preparedness”

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As President Trump orders the Texas National Guard into Chicago, America stands poised on the brink of a constitutional crisis. With troops already stationed in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., critics charge that the president is wielding the military as a political weapon. At the same time, Trump is reshaping the upper ranks of the armed forces, sidelining those who have challenged his authority. Authoritarianism and democracy look more finely balanced than at any time in living memory. So, how far does presidential power truly extend when it comes to deploying soldiers on home soil? And to whom do America’s generals ultimately answer?

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: 10 News, BBC, The New York Times, AP, CBS News, The White House, MSNBC 

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A wave of drones targeting airports, threatening critical infrastructure and potentially endangering the lives of civilians brought a number of Nato countries briefly to a standstill this past month. The presumed gift of President Putin, this deniable activity was straight out of the Kremlin playbook. But was the primary purpose to disrupt for disruption's sake, to probe the weaknesses in Nato's defensive lines or - ultimately - to sow the seeds of a split within the Alliance? As Nato ponders its response, Tom and Patrick explain the 'vertical' and 'horizontal' options available to it, debate whether the West should deter or punish Russia, and ask whether we are now effectively at war?

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: Sky News

Get in touch: [email protected]

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This week, Patrick and Tom turn their attention to India - the world’s most populous country, a rising military power, and a state determined to hold its ground between East and West. As President Xi Jinping courts Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Washington’s ties with Delhi fray, India’s long-cherished “strategic autonomy” is looking increasingly fragile. With Britain’s Prime Minister preparing a visit and global rivalries intensifying, which way might India lean, and what are the stakes here for the West? To explore these questions, Patrick and Tom are joined by a uniquely placed guest: General Manoj Naravane, India’s former Chief of the Army Staff.

Guest: General Manoj Naravane

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

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This week Tom is joined by award-winning war correspondent Anthony Loyd for a special “Journalist & Journalist” edition. Together, they explore why some wars capture global attention while others, equally devastating, remain largely ignored. Drawing on three decades of frontline reporting from the Balkans to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine, Anthony offers a unique insight into how compassion fatigue, geopolitics, history, and media dynamics shape public awareness. The conversation contrasts Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Sudan’s overlooked civil war. Anthony also reflects on the personal toll of covering forgotten wars, and what it means to keep telling these stories, even when the world isn’t listening.

Recorded August 2025.

Guest: Anthony Loyd

Host: Tom Newton Dunn

Get in touch: [email protected]

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This week, Patrick and Tom turn from China’s military power to its less visible, but no less powerful, tools of economic dominance. Their guest, Sam Olsen is a geopolitical strategist with decades of experience studying China who argues that the West’s reliance on Chinese supply chains isn’t just about cheap consumer goods, but runs through the very heart of our defence industries. From rare earth minerals to advanced technology, China has a stranglehold over the components needed to build the weapons of the future. The result is a stark assessment: the real question may not be whether the West could beat China in a war, but whether it could fight one at all.

Guest: Sam Olsen

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

Get in touch: [email protected]

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The People’s Liberation Army put on one of the largest military displays in China’s modern history this week as the country marked the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the Second World War. Accompanied by Presidents Putin and Kim Jong Un, President Xi Jinping showed the world the might of the CCP’s forces, but China-watchers disagree over just how battle-ready the PLA would be in any showdown with the West. To shed light, Tom and Patrick are joined by Timothy Heath, a RAND researcher and former US intelligence analyst.

Guest: Timothy Heath

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

Clips: DRM News

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This week, Tom and Patrick take you inside Ukraine’s railways, the country’s lifeline since the full-scale Russian invasion began. With over 20,000 kilometres of track, they’ve evacuated millions, ferried troops and supplies to the front, and turned carriages into mobile hospitals. At the heart of this effort is Oleksandr Pertsovski, the CEO of Ukrainian Railways, who shares how his “Iron People” have kept the nation moving under daily bombardment. From evacuation scenes echoing Dunkirk, to VIP trains shuttling world leaders in and out of the capital, Kyiv, this is the untold story of logistics, resilience and national pride. The interview was recorded in July 2025.

Guest: Oleksandr Pertsovskyi 

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Photo: Getty Images

Get in touch: [email protected]

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Sir Patrick's away this week, so Tom persuaded another four-star General, the UK's former Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Nick Carter, to join him instead. They discuss whether, in the wake of the Alaska summit between Presidents Trump and Putin, and Europe's mad dash to DC to see off its worst effects, a so-called 'Non-NATO Article 5-style' security guarantee for Ukraine can be any such thing without US boots on the ground to back it up. 

Sir Nick thinks not, and draws parallels with the war Yugoslavia, when UN troops had to stand by and watch as Bosnian civilians were slaughtered by the Serbs. Speaking of history, Sir Nick gives a particularly revealing insight into Trump's own grasp of the subject, disclosed to him while with the President on the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.

Guests: General Sir Nick Carter

Host: Tom Newton Dunn

Clips: Fox News

Photo: Getty Images

Get in touch: [email protected]

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