128 episodes
School of War Nebulous Media
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- History
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4.6 • 249 Ratings
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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 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 the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 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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Ep 126: Michel Paradis on D-Day and Eisenhower
Michel Paradis—litigator, national security law scholar, and author of The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower—joins the show to talk about D-Day and the man behind the invasion, Dwight Eisenhower.
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Times
• 01:49 Introduction
• 01:56 “Wildly under appreciated”
• 05:17 Upbringing
• 11:40 Seeing the world as it is
• 15:01 Not that long ago
• 22:14 British vs American plans
• 32:50 Using strategic advantages
• 36:03 Designing D-Day
• 46:58 Planning for failure
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Follow the link to buy the book - The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower -
Ep 125: Nick Bunker on America and the Early Cold War
Nick Bunker, journalist and author of In the Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950, joins the show to talk about the first decade of the Cold War.
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Times
• 01:36 Introduction
• 02:26 Countdown to war
• 05:17 Biden and Truman
• 09:05 A failure of American policy?
• 13:09 Present at the Creation
• 21:16 Stalin’s view of the world
• 25:50 Stalin and China
• 30:44 Developing nuclear thinking
• 32:39 Robert Taft
• 38:01 No choice but to defend Korea
• 46:44 NSC-68
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Follow the link to buy the book - In the Shadow of Fear: America and the World in 1950 -
Ep 124: Shane Brennan on Xenophon and Leadership
Shane Brennan, Associate Professor of History and Classics at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh and author of Xenophon's Anabasis: A Socratic History, joins the show to talk about why the Anabasis remains an important part of the Western canon of military writing.
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Times
• 01:30 Introduction
• 02:05 Dubai to Bangladesh
• 05:37 Xenophon’s start
• 09:25 Several levels of failure
• 12:37 “An exemplary Socratic student”
• 14:40 Fighting for the Persians
• 17:18 Cyrus the Younger
• 20:46 A leader emerges
• 29:41 “How was he so right?”
• 36:43 Matterhorn
• 38:33 Exile
• 42:01 An instruction on leadership
• 44:16 “There is always something there…”
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Follow the link to buy the book - Xenophon's Anabasis: A Socratic History -
Ep 123: Sergey Radchenko on Soviet Motivations in the Cold War
Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power, joins the show to talk about the strategic aims of the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War and how the Soviets attempted to run the world.
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Times
• 01:17 Introduction
• 02:32 A novel argument
• 08:36 Power and recognition
• 11:51 Who started the Cold War?
• 14:55 The American dilemma
• 17:09 Fukuyama
• 21:21 Nuclear guarantees
• 25:16 The shadow of WWII
• 29:44 Flippancy and boredom
• 32:06 Détente
• 32:12 Backstabbing
• 37:52 American lecturing
• 45:39 Sources of Soviet collapse
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Follow the link to buy the book - To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power -
Ep 122: Mike Gallagher and Matt Pottinger on a Victory Strategy for China
Mike Gallagher and Matt Pottinger join the show to discuss their recent Foreign Affairs essay on the need for a victory strategy in America’s cold war with China.
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Times
• 01:53 Introduction
• 03:25 Meeting in Iraq
• 07:43 “There are bad guys…”
• 13:15 Why detente isn’t working
• 23:45 Real statesmanship?
• 32:12 Rearm/Reduce/Recruit
• 35:20 TikTok
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Read the Foreign Affairs piece here No Substitute for Victory America’s Competition With China Must Be Won, Not Managed
Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack -
Ep 121: Andy Lowery on Drones and Directed Energy
Andy Lowery, CEO of EPIRUS and a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, joins the show to talk about directed energy weapons on the modern battlefield.
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Times
• 01:45 Introduction
• 02:02 Before EPIRUS
• 06:29 Drones on the battlefield
• 13:30 Current countermeasures
• 19:40 An answer for autonomy
• 21:32 How does it all work?
• 29:54 Beam specs
• 33:45 Sci-fi but familiar
• 38:11 Gallium nitride
• 40:31 Cat and mouse game
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Customer Reviews
Interesting and informative
Smart guests and knowledgeable interviewer. Never disappointing.
Aaron MacLean has really come into his own with choice of topics and guests.
Hit or Miss
At its best, this podcast offers a platform for some serious strategic thinkers to outline how they assess the various actors in a given strategic context. At its worst, whole episodes are given over the partisan shills scoring points on current domestic US politics. Maddeningly, host can go either way - asking probing questions of the strategists or lolling around in couch potatoe politics for an hour at a time depending on the guest. Just listening to the first five minutes gives a pretty clear indication whether the episode will be a deeper dive or just more talking heads on current affairs. I’d unsubscribe entirely but for the occasional gem.
School of War
Just recently started listening and it’s instantly my favorite podcast. Always learn so much. Not only are the guests and books discussed super interesting, but MacLean is a provocative commentator and excellent interviewer with deeply insightful questions. Thank You and, while it will take me some time to listen to all the back-episodes, please keep the great content coming!