School of War - Nebulous Media

Latest Episodes:

Ep 137: Richard Frank on Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and World War II’s Endgame Aug 06, 2024

Show notes

Richard Frank, historian and author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire and Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942, joins the show to talk about the controversial legacy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Times

• 02:05 Introduction

• 02:15 Soldier/Lawyer/Historian

• 09:19 Early controversy

• 14:55 Counting all the dead

• 21:54 Contemplating invasion

• 30:10 1:1 ratio, recipe for a bloodbath

• 38:03 Why unconditional surrender?

• 40:48 Two steps to end the war

• 46:54 A combination of forces

• 51:08 How many bombs?

• 54:01 Thinking as your enemy does

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Ep 136: Ronald C. White on Joshua Chamberlain Aug 02, 2024

Show notes

Ronald C. White, Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum and author of On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, joins the show to talk about the hero of Little Round Top, Joshua L. Chamberlain.

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Times

• 01:37 Introduction

• 01:51 Why Chamberlain?

• 09:01 Fighting for the Union

• 14:05 The 20th Maine

• 18:10 Arriving at Gettysburg

• 21:34 The 15th & 47th Alabama

• 24:25 “Bayonets”

• 29:31 Fighting for Grant

• 33:40 Appomattox

• 35:53 Home

• 29:31 Battle Cry of Freedom

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Ep 135: Rich Goldberg on Israel‘s Northern Crisis Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, joins the show to talk about the expanding war between Israel and Iran.

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Times

• 01:40 Introduction

• 03:30 Where things stand

• 15:25 Israeli expectations

• 24:44 Retaliation

• 31:39 Iran’s strategic concept

• 36:16 American interests

• 44:20 Projection

• 50:36 Once Iran has nuclear weapons

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Ep 134: Michael Sobolik on China’s Geostrategy Jul 23, 2024

Show notes

Michael Sobolik, author of Countering China's Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance and Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, joins the show to talk about China.

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Times

• 01:38 Introduction

• 04:29 Belt and Road

• 07:54 The Beginning

• 13:12 Chinese imperialism

• 20:50 Mackinder’s math

• 25:19 Nazi geostrategic thinking

• 28:21 Spykman and BRI

• 31:42 Imperialism is not a relic

• 35:43 Countering China

• 40:40 Tracing BRI back to Beijing

• 46:55 Keeping Taiwan safe

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Ep 133: James Holland on World War II in Italy, 1943 Jul 19, 2024

Show notes

James Holland, author of The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943 and host of the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast, joins the show to talk about the Allied campaign in Italy.

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Times

• 02:08 Introduction

• 04:23 “No greater moment of human drama…”

• 11:08 Why go into Italy at all?

• 18:24 Mission to Rome

• 29:33 Baytown and Avalanche

• 32:10 Salerno

• 36:25 rethinking Mark Clark

• 40:50 Very hard fighting

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Ep 132: Michael Kofman on the Battlefield in Ukraine (War in Ukraine #4) Jul 16, 2024

Show notes

Michael Kofman, Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and contributor to War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, joins the show to talk about the operational phases of the war in Ukraine.

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Times

• 01:28 Introduction

• 02:14 A case of “Two Wars”

• 09:37 Operating on assumptions

• 14:54 Contingency and structure

• 23:41 Figuring things out in the field

• 31:22 Cyber is overhyped

• 39:56 Achieving a favorable outcome

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Ep 131: Thomas Mahnken on Strategic Fallacies (War in Ukraine #3) Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

Thomas Mahnken, President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and contributor to War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, joins the show to talk about how strategic fallacies have played a role in Ukraine.

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Times

• 01:33 Introduction

• 02:30 Fallacies of rationality

• 05:36 Is war irrational?

• 10:02 Germany willed WWI to happen

• 15:40 Fallacy of the irrational/hyper-rational adversary

• 22:53 Rational/irrational Hitler

• 28:09 Wrapped around the rational axle

• 30:34 Fallacy of over/underestimating the adversary

• 37:53 Losing the contingency

• 41:08 Fallacies of interaction

• 45:56 Learning but not doing

• 50:53 Building defenses against fallacies

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Ep 130: John Spencer on Israel’s Unprecedented War (or, Urban Warfare 101) Jul 02, 2024

Show notes

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute and host of the Urban Warfare Project, joins the show to talk about urban combat and how Israel is fighting an unprecedented war against Hamas with justice and humanity.

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Times

• 01:50 Introduction

• 02:08 Fighting and teaching

• 09:31 Changes in urban warfare

• 17:14 Terrain still matters

• 21:54 Israel’s unprecedented war

• 26:11 Learning on the ground

• 33:24 Genocide

• 43:57 The battle of Manila

• 49:41 Suffering is the strategic aim

• 51:04 Tunnels

• 55:51 Outthinking the enemy

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Ep 129: Frank Gavin on Nuclear Strategy and Ukraine (War in Ukraine #2) Jun 25, 2024

Show notes

Frank Gavin, the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and inaugural director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and contributor to War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, joins the show to talk about nuclear strategy and the war in Ukraine.

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Times

• 01:36 Introduction

• 01:53 What are nuclear weapons for?

• 04:15 Pervasive but not used

• 09:53 Invasion insurance

• 17:58 Better to be near-nuclear

• 22:26 How might Putin use nuclear weapons?

• 26:04 Learning by doing

• 33:48 “It’s all happening at once”

• 41:31 Rattling the saber works

• 48:04 “We will get them back”

• 50:07 History and Strategy

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Ep 128: Stephen Kotkin on Russia and Ukraine (War in Ukraine #1) Jun 18, 2024

Show notes

Stephen Kotkin, Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and contributor to War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and the Return of a Fractured World, joins the show to talk about the war in Ukraine and what the endgame might look like.

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Times

• 02:24 Introduction

• 05:09 Four victories

• 11:48 “Winning only on Twitter”

• 22:36 10/7 and Ukraine

• 28:27 Regime change in Russia

• 37:03 Keeping allies

• 45:24 Renting land armies

• 55:01 “European culturally but not Western”

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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack