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Modern War Institute at West Point

The Modern War Institute Podcast, produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974, is the flagship podcast of the Modern War Institute at West Point. It features discussions with guests including senior military leaders, scholars, and others on the most important issues related to modern military conflict.

Modern War Institute

For well over a decade, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad managed to hold onto power during a complicated civil war involving a number of anti-regime rebel groups. And then, rebels launched a lightning offensive that saw a series of Syrian cities—including, ultimately, the capital Damascus—fall. Assad was gone and more than a half-century of rule by his family came to an end. To explore how that happened and what comes next, John Amble is joined on this episode by Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies with deep expertise on Syria.

 

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

How the Assad Regime Fell

After twenty years of America’s post-9/11 wars and the US military’s struggle to build capable and effective security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is an important discussion taking place about what role security force assistance should play for the United States in the very different strategic environment that is taking shape. Will it be a mission that we'll be required to do in order to compete with Russia and China? Or will it become tangential to our preparations for large-scale combat operations? And given the challenges we faced over the past two decades, what needs to happen to achieve better outcomes in the future? Will Reno, a professor of political science at Northwestern University, and Franky Matisek, a military professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College, have researched the topic deeply, including conducting hundreds of interviews in the field. They join this episode to discuss their findings.

 

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Why Security Force Assistance Only Sometimes Works

When the Chinese company DeepSeek recently released an artificial intelligence model called R1, its surprisingly advanced capability and the efficiency with which DeepSeek claimed to have trained the model sparked a wave of discussion about how rapidly Chinese AI development was progressing. But how is the competition to achieve superior AI technologies between China and the United States shaping up? And, given that the governments of both countries envision important military applications of AI, what implications does this have for the broader US-China strategic competition? To explore these questions and more, John Amble is joined by Bill Hannas, lead analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), and Sam Bresnick, a CSET research fellow.

 

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

DeepSeek and the US-China AI Race

National security professionals often conceptualize a continuum of conflict as a framework to understand the wide variety of ways in which conflict can manifest itself. It extends from relative peace on one end, terrorism and low-intensity conflict, up through large-scale combat, all the way to strategic rivalry in which nuclear weapons even come into the picture. But what if that cognitive framework no long holds? In a recent article published by Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mara Karlin explored that question. A professor of practice at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and a former assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities, she shares insights gleaned from ongoing wars, from Ukraine to the Middle East, and argues that warfare is increasingly defined by a mix of characteristics from across the continuum of conflict.

 

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

The Collapse of the Continuum of Conflict

For our first podcast we are talking to Dr. Jakub Grygiel of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. We talk limited war and how it influences the tactical, operational, and strategic picture in Europe and beyond.

Ep. 1 - "Are We Headed for Limited War" with Dr. Jakub Grygiel

This week on the podcast we talk to Dr. Rodger Shanahan, a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute.

Using Aleppo as a case study we talk about tactical action leading up to the fighting in Aleppo, air to ground integration between Russian air forces and Syrian ground forces, as well as what tactical level leaders can learn about ground war from Syria’s example.

Ep. 2 - "A Look at Urban Warfare in the Syrian City of Aleppo" with Dr. Rodger Shanahan

We talk to Michael O'Hanlon from the Brookings Institution about the current state of the Army, what the future of the Army holds, and how juniors leaders and security professionals can prepare.

Ep. 3 - "The Once and Future Mission" with Michael O'Hanlon

The United States currently has a limited appetite for large scale deployment of conventional forces, but the security situation around the world is tenuous. Today, the United States has avoided large deployments through drone warfare and proxy support. We talk with New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt about where and how that template is being used and how effective the larger operational template is in handling global security threats.

Ep. 4 - "The Evolving US Template to Global Security" with Eric Schmitt

We talk to Max Brooks, writer of the Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and Harlem Hellfighters, about how a zombie plague can help us understand current and future security issues.

Ep. 5 - "Zombies and Global Security" with Max Brooks

We talk with SSG Ryan Pitts, Medal of Honor recipient, about 2008's Battle of Wanat. His unit experienced a large scale, determined attack in the mountains of Afghanistan which resulting in nine Americans killed. We hear his story and discuss ways that further leaders can prepare themselves for situations similar to those he experienced.

Ep. 6 - "The Story of Wanat" with SSG Ryan Pitts

Max Brooks talks about how creativity can only succeed if someone takes up and works for new ideas. From Army doctrine to weapons development to organizational management, championing creativity has to happen to allow new ideas to grow and spread. We talk how that applies to the Army today and to the future of war.

Ep. 20 - "Championing Creativity" with Max Brooks

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