School of War - Nebulous Media

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Ep 28: Wesley Morgan on Afghanistan, Part 1 of 2 May 10, 2022

Show notes

Ep 28: Wesley Morgan on Afghanistan

Wesley Morgan, journalist and author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, joins the show to discuss his experiences in the Pech Valley, one of Afghanistan’s most contested battlegrounds, and to talk about the U.S. counterinsurgency’s successes and failures. This episode is part 1 of 2.

Times

02:52 Introduction
04:28 From Princeton to The Pech
07:25 The Age Dynamic
09:46 Fighting Styles In Helmand Province
12:42 The Episodic Nature Of Fighting In Afghanistan
13:42 The Terrain Of The Pech Valley
17:11 Seeking Bin Laden In Kunar
18:43 Kafiristan - Daniel Dravot’s Dream
20:27 Special Forces - A Tool For Every Task
24:21 The Role Of Seal Team Six and Delta Force
29:36 Seeking The Enemy
31:23 Who Was The Enemy In The Pech?
33:58 The Timber Mafia

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Ep 27: Fred Kagan on Ukraine II May 03, 2022

Show notes

Ep 27: Fred Kagan on Ukraine II

Fred Kagan, Senior Fellow and Director of Critical Threats Project at AEI, joins the show to discuss where the war in Ukraine stands, how initial Russian designs failed, and where the conflict is headed.

Times

02:14 Introduction
03:22 Accurate Predictions
06:45 The Baffling Russian Attack on Kyiv
08:36 A River Runs Through…The Russian Plan
10:22 Operational Design 101
13:22 Back To Basics - Reading Terrain Still Matters
16:33 Russian Objectives In The East
21:51 Russian Command And Control
26:29 Ukrainian Strikes On Senior Russian Officers
28:38 Russian Objectives In The South
33:06 Putin Still Seeking Total Victory?
36:42 Russian Game-plan For The South Coast
39:18 Transnistria
42:27 False Flags - Putin’s Comfort Zone
44:01 Moldovan Capabilities
47:46 Force Is A Kind Of Failure
50:47 Putin’s Options
54:48 Deterrence And Nuclear Taboos

Ukraine Maps 05/02/2022 per ISW

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Ep 26: Andrew Lambert on the Crimean War Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

Ep 26: Andrew Lambert on the Crimean War

Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College, joins the show to discuss the Crimean War, including why it shouldn’t have been called by that name. Professor Lambert also explains the relevance of the Crimean War to today’s war in Ukraine.

Times

• 01:28 Introduction

• 02:20 Causes of the Crimean War

• 07:57 Flashpoint in the Holy Land

• 12:31 Steamships and Strategy

• 16:34 Functional Dysfunction in Policymaking

• 21:44 Why Target Sevastopol?

• 26:44 What Went Wrong

• 31:47 The Press and Public Opinion

• 36:31 Reading Events Incorrectly

• 38:57 The Baltic Campaign

• 45:30 Mahan and Corbett Interpret the War

• 48:39 Ukraine War - An Echo of the Crimean War

• 55:34 Can Russia Re-Integrate Into The Global Community?

• 58:32 Will Putin Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons?

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Ep. 25: Waller Newell on Putin and Tyranny Apr 12, 2022

Show notes

Waller Newell, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Carleton University, joins the show to discuss tyranny and tyrants—and Vladimir Putin in particular.

Times

02:05 Introduction
03:43 Let's talk about Vladimir Putin
05:40 What is the Russian "Soul"?
07:19 Quote from "The Russian Idea"
08:40 Who was Nikolai Berdyaev?
09:54 Is Berdyaev an influence on Aleksandr Dugin?
11:05 The West has a hard time understanding non-economic motivations. Why?
13:06 Who is Aleksandr Dugin?
15:21 “Eurasian Nationalist Bolshevism”
16:55 Rehabilitating Stalin
18:40 Are we seeing a perpetuation of Tsarist Russia?
20:40 What is fascism?
22:35 The many types of tyranny
25:12 What kind of tyrant is Putin?
26:50 Why has millenarian tyranny appeared so relatively recently in history?
29:51 The relationship between liberalism and millenarian tyranny
31:25 The next ten years in Russia
34:00 Did Putin know what he was getting himself into in Ukraine?
35:36 The prospect of Russian and Chinese collaboration in the future
36:55 Who drives Chinese policy - Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party?
38:56 Staying sane while studying tyrants
42:10 What should we be reading to better recognize hostile actors for what they are?

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Ep. 24: Richard Overy on World War II Apr 05, 2022

Show notes

Richard Overy, professor of history at the University of Exeter, joins the show to discuss World War II and the wars of imperial aggression.

Times

02:23 - Introduction
04:24 - Imperialism prior to World War II
06:00 - Nations as empires
08:32 -Traditional imperialism versus the Axis Powers' concept
11:02 - Who is Halford Mackinder?
13:14 - The development of Germany's vision of empire
14:36 - German war aims in World War I and World War II
17:02 - Germany and the East
22:16 - The Japanese vision of empire
25:01 - How Japan modernization
26:33 - Japan's methods of rule
27:50 - American and the USSR
34:06 - World War II book recommendations

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Ep. 23: James Holmes on Sea Power Mar 29, 2022

Show notes

James Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College, joins the show to discuss sea power, the war in Ukraine, and the possibility of war in the Pacific

Times

00:58 - Introduction
01:57 - Time spent considering Russia and the NATO alliance’s naval power
04:05 - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grand strategy
05:35 - What does Ukraine mean to Putin?
06:58 - The Crimean War
10:32 - Closing the Bosporus
16:15 - Does the war end well for Putin?
21:28 - Zelensky’s survival
23:12 - Worst-case scenario for Putin
25:43 - What the outcome in Ukraine will mean for Taiwan
28:35 - China’s challenge in Taiwan
31:02 - How security concerns in the early American Republic influence China’s thinking
35:25 - Should the United States shift national security focus to Asia?

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Ep. 22: Jeremy Black on Tank Warfare Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

Jeremy Black, Professor of History at the University of Exeter, joins the show to discuss tank warfare from its origins to the battlefields of Ukraine

Times

01:13 - Introduction
02:02 - The creation of the tank
07:48 - Parallel technological development of tanks and aircraft
14:20 - Developing thoughts on employing tanks leading into World War II
18:24 - Blitzkrieg and the role of armored vehicles, speed, and communication during invasions
24:13 - The Soviet Union's invasion of Finland
28:07 - The development of armored technology during the Arab-Israeli wars after World War II
35:06 - Russia's strategy for invasion, the likelihood of Putin overtaking Ukraine, and the future of the tank

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Ep. 21: Matthew Kroenig on Ukraine and Putin’s Nuclear Weapons Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

Matthew Kroenig, Professor in the Department of Government and Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Director of Studies at the Atlantic Council, joins the show to discuss Russian nuclear doctrine and what it means for the war in Ukraine.

Times

00:49 - Introduction
01:07 - Forecasting Russia's potential gains in Ukraine
02:45 - The nuclear dimension in Ukraine
05:05 - Russian nuclear doctrine: escalate to de-escalate
10:52 - Potential U.S. responses to Russian nuclear strikes on NATO allies
12:54 - Perceptions of nuclear weapons, from the Cold War to now
15:46 - Battlefield nuclear tactics
18:32 - Russian thinking on employing chemical weapons
21:05 - U.S. nuclear weapons policy
25:44 - Scenarios when Russia would use nuclear weapons
27:16 - Putin's rationale and next steps
29:21 - Russian strikes and potential fault lines in Western unity
32:30 - U.S. reliance on Russia's brokerage of a nuclear deal with Iran

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Ep. 20: Bill Roggio on Ukraine Mar 09, 2022

Show notes

Ep. 20: Bill Roggio on Ukraine

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, joins the show to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

01:10 - Introduction

7:32 - Assessing Russian objectives in Ukraine

13:25 - Russian shortfalls

23:12 - Limits on Russian resources

28:37 - Does the lack of preparation hurt Russian troops?

32:21 - No fly zones

38:36 - Escalation scenarios

43:00 - Prospects for insurgency

49:32 - How does this end?

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Ep. 19: Fred Kagan on Ukraine Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

Fred Kagan, Director of Critical Threats Project at AEI, joins the show to discuss the first week of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Times:

00:42 - Introduction

01:40 - The situation at present

06:39 - Nature of original build-up of Russian forces

14:50 - Russian strategic and operational style

17:47 - Lack of political preparation

20:44 - Putin's background

24:22 - Will Russia win?

30:14 - What are Putin's weaknesses?

34:20 - What happens next if Kyiv falls?

39:41 - Impact on American national security

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