School of War - Nebulous Media

Latest Episodes:

Ep 117: Shlomo Brody on the Ethics of War Apr 02, 2024

Show notes

Rabbi Shlomo Brody, executive director of Ematai and author of Ethics of Our Fighters: A Jewish View on War and Morality, joins the show to talk about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the Jewish tradition of military ethics.

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Times

• 01:28 Introduction

• 04:04 Just war

• 07:27 The Bible as a framework

• 13:34 International service

• 18:33 Reprisals

• 21:37 Purity of arms

• 27:09 Collateral damage

• 33:41 International law

• 35:48 Proportionality

• 39:40 A dangerous ideology

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Ep 116: David Stahel on Guderian and Hitler’s Panzer Generals Mar 26, 2024

Show notes

David Stahel, associate professor of history at the University of New South Wales and author of Hitler's Panzer Generals: Guderian, Hoepner, Reinhardt and Schmidt Unguarded, joins the show to talk about Heinz Guderian, the myth and the man.

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Times

• 01:38 Introduction

• 02:57 Diving into the letters

• 08:43 Debunking

• 15:30 A sinister figure

• 19:39 Achtung - Panzer!

• 27:37 Guderian the Nazi

• 33:42 Poland and France

• 45:49 Russia

• 50:50 Barbarossa bound to fail?

• 54:48 Guderian the chameleon

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Ep 115: Stephen Robinson on the Case against John Boyd Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

Stephen Robinson, author of The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War, joins the show to talk about Boyd, the man who developed the concept of “maneuver warfare,” and what Boyd may have gotten wrong.

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Times

• 01:21 Introduction

• 02:24 “A genuine polymath”

• 04:20 The OODA Loop

• 07:39 J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddell Hart

• 13:28 The conventional blitzkrieg

• 19:26 Maneuver warfare

• 25:01 Cannae

• 29:07 Tactical success to operational failure

• 34:07 Post-Vietnam U.S. military woes

• 37:24 Active defense

• 43:31 Skeptical of technology

• 48:07 The Defense Reform Movement

• 53:50 Iraqi Freedom

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Ep 114: Eric Edelman on the Foundations of Nuclear Strategy (New Makers of Modern Strategy #11) Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Ambassador to Turkey and Finland, joins the show to talk about how nuclear strategic thinking began and how those debates resonate today.

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Times

• 01:47 Introduction

• 02:45 Oppenheimer’s Borden in reality

• 07:00 Brodie and The Absolute Power

• 11:12 Deterrence before Hiroshima

• 13:15 Blackett and Fear, War, and the Bomb

• 19:40 Counter-value vs counter-force

• 37:33 Russian nuclear strategy

• 42:44 Extended deterrence

• 52:37 Pain tolerance

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Ep 113: Rebeccah Heinrichs on Today’s Crisis of American Deterrence Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

Rebeccah Heinrichs, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and the director of its Keystone Defense Initiative, joins the show to talk about the state of U.S. deterrence of Russia, Iran, and China—and what Washington could be doing better.

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Times

• 01:42 Introduction

• 02:18 Conventional and strategic deterrence

• 04:06 A failure of strategic deterrence

• 09:38 Integrated deterrence

• 13:33 Putin is committed to the bit

• 15:36 If Russia wins, what’s it to the US?

• 19:16 Options if Russia uses nuclear weapons

• 24:06 The pendulum keeps swinging

• 28:20 Washington’s confusion regarding Iran and Israel

• 31:56 Red Sea adrift

• 36:00 China and the rest

• 40:01 Pacific flashpoints

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Ep 112: Paul Scharre on AI 101 Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

Paul Scharre, Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at CNAS and author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, joins the show to talk about how AI will change the battlefield.

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Times

• 01:38 Introduction

• 01:54 Becoming a Ranger

• 03:48 A defining moment

• 07:25 A historical parallel for AI

• 11:16 Hardware

• 14:10 “Taiwan is the Saudi Arabia of chips”

• 16:20 Military applications

• 19:37 Battle damage assessment and AI tracking

• 22:50 Autonomous weapons

• 27:50 Legal, ethical, and control issues

• 30:08 Battlefield applications

• 32:43 Operational ability

• 36:51 WMDs

• 40:09 Countermeasures

• 43:53 Transportable?

• 46:40 AI and nuclear weapons

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Ep 111: Prit Buttar on the Siege of Leningrad and War in the East Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

Prit Buttar, historian and author of To Besiege a City: Leningrad 1941–42, joins the show to talk about the siege of Leningrad and about the nature of war on the Eastern Front.

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Times

• 01:56 Introduction

• 02:10 A familiar story

• 06:09 Themes of the Eastern Front

• 13:19 From Tsar to Stalin to Putin

• 11:10 Barbarosa

• 19:45 An immense scale

• 27:29 Doctrinal failure

• 33:17 Inside the Russian mindset

• 37:21 The myth of the “Clean Wehrmacht”

• 40:20 The siege

• 49:15 Who stays?

• 51:18 How did the Germans fail?

• 01:03:25 Staying vigilant

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Ep 110: Thomas Mahnken on Net Assessment Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

Thomas Mahnken, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, joins the show to talk about net assessment and the future of war.

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Times

• 01:39 Introduction

• 02:02 An interesting journey

• 03:33 The Office of Net Assessment

• 09:49 A tool, not a solution

• 13:19 Both quantity and quality matter

• 15:05 Soviet thinking

• 19:20 Leveraging insight

• 23:11 Potential outcomes

• 28:35 “The Houthis have friends.”

• 33:19 Danger and opportunity

• 37:20 The terms of success change

• 43:14 Solving the problem of the moment

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Ep 109: John Noonan on Nuclear Weapons and Policy Feb 06, 2024

Show notes

John Noonan, senior advisor at POLARIS National Security, joins the show to talk about all things nuclear; the life of a missileer, the current U.S. arsenal and its production problems, the strategy of deterrence, and how Congressional oversight helps/hinders good government.

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Times

• 01:34 Introduction

• 02:04 VMI and the Air Force

• 05:13 Missileers

• 11:25 Targets of significance

• 16:33 Atrophy

• 22:18 Production problems

• 27:46 Congressional oversight

• 34:30 An unfocused military

• 44:17 Not getting it done

• 47:05 “Raw and abject stupidity”

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Ep 108: Donald L. Miller on Masters of the Air Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

Donald L. Miller, historian and author of Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, the book behind Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, joins the show to talk about the air war over Europe during WWII.

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Times

• 01 :41 Introduction

• 02:12 Growing up “surrounded by the war”

• 15:35 Both sides are losing

• 25:23 Highest percentage of casualties

• 34:36 Mass vs mass

• 37:20 A new battlefield

• 42:49 “Almost nothing held up.”

• 44:46 Robert Rosenthal

• 48:57 Working with Tom Hanks

• 53:51 Recreating air combat