Defense One Radio Defense One staff

We’re going to take a closer look at Russian private military contractors. How much do we understand about what these groups are up to? And how much should the U.S. and its allies be concerned? It’s a phenomenon with a history; and it’s something that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
The episode is broken into four parts:
• Behind the Battle of Khasham (at the 1:53 mark)
• Prigozhin's Path (8:09)
• An Ignominious Invasion (23:16)
• Into Africa (27:47)
Guests include Kimberly Mart

With less than a year until the next U.S. election, we’ve got a few experts to help break down what they think is ahead in U.S.-directed influence operations. They include Alina Polyakova of the Brookings Institution; Clint Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Alliance for Securing Democracy; retired CIA agent John Sipher; and (briefly) Mark Galeotti of the Royal United Services Institute. // Music is by Paul Mottram; Bob Bradley; David O'Brien; Lincoln Grounds; and Matt Hill — via Au

Defense One's Patrick Tucker sat down with Pakistan’s top diplomat in Washington to discuss the U.S. troop pullout in Afghanistan, the worsening situation in Kashmir, and efforts to fight extremism.

This episode we'll discuss the NATO alliance and how some military tactics are changing in the face of strategic threats from Russia. We’ll also assess some of the more recent responses to wider global trends like populism and how, in some parts of Europe, Chinese soft power is already influencing culture, politics and security. // Music this week from Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd; Joe Henson and Alexis Smith; David O'Brien and Chris Egan; Philip Guyler; Terry Devine-King; Paul Clarvis, Matt H

This episode we'll learn why the Pentagon and the U.S. defense establishment are increasingly turning to wargames and simulations; what famous games of the past got right, and wrong; and why we still need experts who strategize almost exclusively in the analog world of plastic chips and toy soldiers and hexagon maps. Guests include Becca Wasser, Stacie Pettyjohn, Ellie Bartels, Christopher Rice and Mark Herman. // Music by Terry Devine-King, Nathan Feddo, Henry White, Ben Watson, Joe Henson and Alexis Smith

What does it mean for the future of international security to almost completely pull the U.S. military out of Syria? This episode, we investigate that and a lot more with Dana Stroul of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute, and Melissa Dalton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.