Lance R. Blyth, command historian at the North American Aerospace Defense Command and author of Ski, Climb, Fight: The 10th Mountain Division and the Rise of Mountain Warfare, joins the show to discuss the history and tactics of fighting at altitude.
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• 01:31 Introduction
• 01:41 Marine
• 04:55 L.A. riots
• 07:22 From horses to skis
• 10:13 Antecedents
• 13:56 Advantage
• 15:40 The Germans
• 17:55 The Winter War
• 22:51 French surrender
• 25:58 Specialized divisions
• 31:37 Volunteers
• 33:49 Training
• 36:50 Delay and Italy
• 42:16 No doctrine
• 45:29 The Gothic Line
• 52:00 Success
• 55:35 Afghanistan
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56:55
Ep 239: Charles C. Mann on How the System Works
Charles C. Mann, author of “How the System Works” in The New Atlantis, joins the show to discuss the complexity and vulnerability of the hidden processes that sustain human life on our planet.
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• 01:49 Introduction
• 02:31 Interconnected
• 05:43 Medical care
• 09:20 Feeding humanity
• 11:56 Three advances
• 20:42 Water
• 26:34 Energy
• 36:05 Keeping pace
• 38:35 Hurdles
• 41:12 Solutions
• 45:26 Public health
• 56:38 Concerns
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
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58:14
Ep 238: James Titterton on Medieval Deception
James Titterton, historian and author of Deception in Medieval Warfare: Trickery and Cunning in the Central Middle Ages, joins the show to discuss strategies and stratagems in the age of castles and knights.
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Times
• 01:29 Introduction
• 02:18 High Middle Ages
• 09:03 Oathbreakers
• 12:01 Sources
• 16:21 Doctrine
• 22:07 Bribery
• 31:23 Spies and feints
• 39:26 Plausibility
• 42:19 Professionals
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43:56
Ep 237: Toshi Yoshihara on China’s Subversive Strategies
Toshi Yoshihara, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and author of Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy, joins the show to discuss how the PLA took Beijing in 1949 by subversion, and how they may yet seize Taiwan.
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Times
• 01:53 Introduction
• 03:24 Peaceful liberation
• 07:19 Planning and preparation
• 10:36 Isolation
• 17:30 A tradition of manipulation
• 23:51 True believers
• 28:23 Helpless
• 34:55 Political warfare
• 41:53 Surprise
• 47:32 Holy Grail
• 50:51 Fault lines
• 57:44 What to read?
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57:59
Ep 236: Joshua Rovner on Grand Strategy
Joshua Rovner, Associate Professor in the School of International Service at American University and author of Strategy and Grand Strategy, joins the show to discuss the tension between pursuing military victory and securing a nation.
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Times
• 01:28 Introduction
• 01:35 MIT
• 05:03 Grand strategy
• 10:45 Peloponnesian War
• 18:05 Spartan strategy
• 22:34 Pericles
• 27:18 A terrible irony
• 32:43 Disastrous victory
• 41:35 British power
• 46:13 Atomic strategy
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history. Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and former China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras. The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.
Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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