School of War - Nebulous Media

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How the Middle East Got So Screwed Up, with Simon Sebag Montefiore Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

“Let’s whisper it,” said historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. “The Trump blockade is working.” It can be hard to parse the state of play in the Middle East amid escalating rhetoric, but history gives us the necessary perspective to call balls and strikes in the present day. Today, the author of The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East joins School of War to discuss the forces that created the modern Middle East, why he thinks Trump’s strategy in Iran is working, and the growing rivalry between Israel and Turkey. “There is a real danger that Erdoğan will talk himself into a war with Israel,” he warns.

05:22 — The Middle East Is Not Monochrome

09:49 — Four Eras of the Modern Middle East

11:45 — The Problem With Nation-States

18:30 — Why 1979 Changed the Middle East

25:22 — Can Iran’s Revolution Survive Regime Change?

34:28 — Iran, Hormuz, and the Nuclear Question

39:57 — Could Iran’s Regime Reach a Breaking Point?

44:42 — Why Iran’s Regime Is Built for War

50:46 — Trump, Soleimani, and the 12-Day War

52:28 — Can the Iran Blockade Work?

54:23 — Israel’s Post–October 7 Grand Strategy

1:04:56 — Israel, Turkey, and Erdoğan’s Neo-Ottoman Ambitions

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This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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America’s Aging Shipyards Are a Crisis Waiting to Happen Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

If America wants to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, it needs to build more warships. China currently dominates global shipbuilding—producing vessels at a scale the United States can no longer match. Alex Wong, an executive at South Korean shipbuilding giant Hanwha Group and a former Trump administration national security adviser, thinks he has the solution. Today, Wong joins Aaron MacLean to discuss how the United States lost its shipbuilding capacity, how South Korean technology and investment could help revive American shipyards, and what it will take to rebuild the country’s naval industrial base. “America doesn’t have 20 years” to regain its maritime dominance, he warns.

02:23 — America’s Shipbuilding Crisis

05:44 — How America Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry

09:43 — Why Commercial Shipbuilding Matters to the Navy

12:28 — America vs. China’s Shipbuilding Capacity

13:54 — Rebuilding America’s Shipyards

16:16 — Robots and the Future of Shipbuilding

23:52 — Rebuilding America’s Shipbuilding Workforce

29:11 — Building Ships for Golden Dome

30:11 — Can America Build Enough Ships?

32:46 — Replacing Ships in Wartime

34:54 — Trump, Kim Jong Un, and North Korea

43:06 — Taiwan, Korea, and a Two-Front Crisis

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The Middle East After America? Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Could Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey form a “Muslim NATO?” Pakistan has the nuclear arsenal, Saudi Arabia has the wealth, and Turkey has the NATO-trained military—“you put these three together and it becomes a pretty formidable force,” says CBS News senior foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab. Today, he joins School of War to discuss whether the pact could really become an effective alliance, what the effort reveals about America’s changing role in the Middle East, and what five years of Taliban rule have meant for Afghanistan: “I’ve never seen the Taliban more confident,” he said.

02:14 — Reporting From Afghanistan

05:42 — The War in Afghanistan

11:29 — A More Confident Taliban

13:09 — Life Under Taliban Rule

16:13 — Afghanistan’s Secret Girls’ Schools

20:26 — Letters From Afghan Girls

25:30 — Afghanistan Under the Taliban

28:47 — A Girl’s Plea to the World

30:07 — The Pakistan-Saudi-Turkey Alliance

31:47 — A “Muslim NATO”?

40:33 — The Abraham Accords

44:27 — Testing the New Defense Pact

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Why John Boyd Still Matters Sep 18, 2026

Show notes

John Boyd was one of the most influential military thinkers of the 20th century, and the intellectual godfather of the U.S. Marines’ military strategy. Today, as artificial intelligence continues to transform battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East, author and retired Marine officer Ian Brown argues that Boyd’s ideas are more relevant than ever. Today, Brown joins Aaron MacLean to discuss how Ukraine is harnessing Boyd’s concept of narrative warfare, what Boyd can teach us about conflict in the age of AI, drones, and precision strikes, and his new book co-authored with Frans P. B. Osinga, Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals.

2:20 Who Was John Boyd?
7:25 What Boyd Learned From Dogfighting
15:37 From Air Combat to the OODA Loop
23:49 Is the OODA Loop Really About Speed?
29:33 What Do Blitzkrieg and Insurgency Have in Common?
36:44 Surfaces and Gaps
41:25 Why Did the Marine Corps Embrace Boyd?
48:25 The Marine Corps’ Warfighting Doctrine
50:25 Does Modern Warfare Challenge Boyd?
53:18 Information as a Weapon
53:53 Boyd’s Ideas Meet Drone Warfare
54:55 From Nagorno-Karabakh to Ukraine

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What War Teaches Us—If We Survive It Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

People think retired Army Major John Spencer lost part of his ear in combat. He didn’t; he lost it in a fight behind a bar that cost him his spot in the Army Rangers. Spencer went on to serve repeatedly in combat and become one of the country’s leading experts on urban warfare. He joins Aaron MacLean to discuss his origin story and other anecdotes from his new book, Twenty Times I Almost Died, as well as why he thinks the U.S. “is clearly winning” the war in Iran.

3:30 War With Iran 9:43 Battle of Hormuz 10:42 Wartime Stockpiles 12:32 The Stakes of Failure 15:34 Losing His Ear 23:34 Losing the Rangers 25:51 Resilience 28:58 Invading Iraq 33:59 Common Sense in Combat 39:08 The IED Trap 44:25 Battle of Marjah 51:01 Gangs of Baghdad

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‘We Are Going to War’: H.R. McMaster Remembers 9/11 Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster was on the phone with the Pentagon when the plane struck the building on September 11, 2001. “I thought, Okay, we are going to war,” he recalls. Twenty-five years after 9/11, McMaster joins Aaron MacLean to discuss the wars that followed. Drawing on his experience as a wartime commander and national security adviser, McMaster explains why he considers Afghanistan a self-defeat, how American withdrawal helped enable the rise of ISIS in Iraq, and why he thinks the latest Iran ceasefire was “a big mistake.”

4:39 McMaster on 9/11

7:27 Adapting to Iraq

12:33 Lessons From Iraq

15:13 Counterinsurgency’s Legacy

21:19 The Post-9/11 Wars

23:23 Afghanistan’s “Self-Defeat”

25:07 When America Leaves

29:53 Sustaining Afghanistan

32:14 Defending the Afghan Mission

35:37 The Axis of Aggressors

44:41 Trump’s Messaging About the War

49:07 Politics in the Military

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Ten-Minute Warning: The Hypersonic Threat Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

A Chinese hypersonic missile targeting either U.S. coast would leave room for “about 10 minutes of warning time.” Zachary Krevor, CEO of Stratolaunch, is building vehicles to help the Pentagon learn to detect, track, and intercept this threat. Today, Krevor joins School of War to explain how China and Russia have outpaced the U.S. in hypersonic weapons testing, why AI-enabled missile “swarms” may be on the horizon, and what it will take for America to defend itself against them.

2:32 What Makes a Weapon Hypersonic?

4:47 The Real-Life Top Gun: Maverick

6:14 From Model Airplanes to Hypersonics

9:09 Why America Stopped Investing in Hypersonics

10:55 Two Types of Hypersonic Weapons

14:09 Glide Bodies vs. Cruise Missiles

15:44 Surviving the Heat of Mach 5

20:20 Testing America’s Hypersonic Technology

23:20 China and Russia’s Hypersonic Advantage

25:24 How to Stop a Hypersonic Missile

29:09 The Coming Age of Hypersonic Swarms

40:38 Can Golden Dome Stop Hypersonic Weapons?

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What to Expect When You’re Expecting Great Power Conflict Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

When it comes to world superpowers, Cambridge historian Brendan Simms argues there are only four that matter—and two of them are fading. Today, Simms joins Aaron MacLean to argue that Britain still belongs among the world’s leading powers; why its place among them is “by no means guaranteed”; and why Hitler is no longer the absolute evil against which people define themselves.

4:08 The Four R’s of Great Power

4:29 Defining Great Power

8:09 Iran’s Regional Power

11:44 The Great Powers Return

15:39 The Cold War

17:44 Europe Wakes Up

21:45 American Unipolarity Ends

25:16 Britain’s Great-Power Claim

35:47 The New World Order

38:26 Realism’s Blind Spots

42:07 Losing Postwar Optimism

45:53 A “Post-Hitler World”

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Shot Down over Serbia: General Goldfein’s Incredible Story Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

The story of Air Force General David Goldfein, who miraculously survived after his plane was shot down over Serbia in 1999, has since become military legend. Today, he joins School of War to recount the harrowing rescue mission that saved him, how he stayed alive behind enemy lines, and the lessons his remarkable career offers about leadership, airpower, and preparing America for the next war.

2:43 An Air Force Family

3:25 Rejected by the Air Force Academy

6:39 Becoming an F-16 Pilot

8:12 What Makes a Great Fighter Pilot?

12:36 Information Overload in Combat

15:28 Goldfein’s First Combat Mission

19:57 Training for Confidence Under Fire

21:37 A Leadership Lesson from the Gulf War

24:32 Shot Down Over Serbia

28:51 Surviving Behind Enemy Lines

31:48 The Race to Rescue Goldfein

36:22 Guiding the Rescue Helicopter

44:50 The Impact on His Family

48:53 Witnessing the Attack on the Pentagon

51:19 Digitizing the American Military

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Our Foreign Policy Divide Began with the Korean War Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

More than 75 years after the Korean War, its lessons endure—and divisions over isolationism and American power continue to shape the discourse around modern global conflicts. Dane J. Cash, historian and author of The Forgotten Debate: The Korean War and the Roots of America's Ideological Divisions, joins School of War to explain how the left’s hawk-dove divide during the Korean War foreshadowed the neoconservative break from the liberal consensus during the 1970s and why the political battles of the early Cold War continue to splinter America today.

2:10 America Before the Korean War

3:08 The Debate Over Containment

4:15 Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism

5:29 Did Acheson Invite the War?

8:23 Why North Korea Attacked

8:55 Conservative Criticism of Truman

11:10 Liberal Divisions Over Korea

13:30 The Roots of Neoconservatism

17:14 Truman’s Lonely Middle Ground

19:51 The Right’s Foreign Policy Split

22:05 Taft, Eisenhower, and the GOP

22:58 MacArthur’s Moment