The security perimeter podcast

So as you can tell from the title, this episode looks at the motivation for the invasion of Ukraine by Stalin, I mean Putin. We mythbust the idea that poor Putin was all afraid of NATO expansion and thats why he invaded. It turns out, that it has more to do with Putin's desire to "reconstruct" the soviet empire (he actually said in 2002 that the worst geopolitical event of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union) and to get "revenge" for all the horrible things that the west has done to him. For starters, the last time NATO expanded towards the borders of Russia was 2008. So why didnt he do anything then? And after he invaded crimea in 2014, he never mentioned NATO as a motivation. So listen to find out what he said and why he is doing what he is doing.... hint.... Empire and revenge, Not NATO. Ines Gomez, my assistant, co-hosts this episode cause she had to do all the research on what Putin has said over the last 20 years on this issue. Got job Ines, and thanks so much for co-hosting!!!!

So what a surprise. Hitler, I mean, Stalin, I mean Putin invaded Ukraine. Told ya so! Ive been warning about this guy since 2014, but nobody paid attention. Well, almost nobody. So this is my take on whats going on.  What happened, whats happening, and a bit of crystal balling on what might happen in the near future. Believe it or not, the podcast ends with a bit of possible good news, I mean, not good news for the Ukrainians, thats for sure, but maybe possibly some good news for the world order that Putin just utterly shattered. Maybe. Possibly. But not for Ukraine. Im with Zeelinsky, are U? Thanks to all the reps at Vestigium, but especially to Monica and Ramon for setting this up!

Ok, so we have heard alot of bull from a lot of politicians (Biden and Blinken for example) who claim to know what happened in afghanistan. Surprise surprise, these people are clueless. You want to know what happened during the war in afghanistan from someone who was ACTUALLY THERE in a COMBAT ROLE for 2 YEARS?? then listen to this podcast. Colonel Jaime Cade was there. He explains what it was like being there and what actually went wrong and why. EVERYONE ON THE PLANET (and beyond) need to listen to this podcast... nuf said.

so this is (finally) part 2 of the NEW COLD WAR PODCAST SERIES. This time, Mariana (my intelligent, caring and beautiful wife) and I focus the discussion more on the geopolitical situation rather than Putin. It looks at NATO as an alliance, hybrid warfare, the new nuclear arms race, and conventional capabilities of the 2 sides, even the role of China. It argues we are in the midst of a NEW Cold War (thats pretty obvious by now), but demonstrates why this time, its much more scarier than the first cold war. Sorry millennials and the next ones whatever you are called, but if you didnt know this already, the world is a scarier place today than when I was growing up in the 80s. Uggg... Oh and guess what, I still blame the Russians. 

OK. I dont have to go into how bad things are in afghanistan. we have all been seeing video and pictures. This is likely to become the largest humanitarian disaster the world has ever seen. The UN estimates that there is a possibily that the disastrous NATO withdrawal and the Taliban takeover will create a 9 MILLION people refugee crisis. The question we discussed with my awesome undergrads is WHAT WENT WRONG and more importantly WHY. This is a good one folks. A MUST LISTEN Security Perimeter Podcast episodes. The bad news is afghanistan. The good news is how thoughtful and and intelligent my students are. Im so impressed. BONUS ALERT!!! A simultanuous real time colorful commentary on Biden`s now famous "lets make america great again" Trump 2.0 speech. Spoiler alert!!! I dont go easy on him.