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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

For more than three years, journalists, researchers, and military professionals have sought to describe the key dynamics of the war in Ukraine and determine what they tell us about the future of warfare. One of the sharpest observers has been retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan. He joins this episode to share some of his thoughts about the ongoing war—and what it indicates about the changing character of warfare. He also explores the ways that lessons from Ukraine should be translated and inform our understanding of the very different strategic landscape and operational environment of the Indo-Pacific region.

 

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

The Future Battlefield, from Europe to the Indo-Pacific

The defense industrial base is a critical component of US military readiness. But how should we conceptualize it in the information age, when it isn't just physical materiel like weapons, vehicles, and ammunition that are vital, but also data and software? How have globalization and the consequent emergence of long, complex supply chains extending around the world changed the way defense planning should be conducted? And at its best, what features would define a defense industrial base that is optimized for a potential large-scale, protracted conflict? This episode explores those questions and more. It features a discussion with Becca Wasser, deputy director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security and coauthor of a recent report, "From Production Lines to Front Lines: Revitalizing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base for Future Great Power Conflict."

 

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

The US Defense Industrial Base, from Steel to Software

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

From 2016 to 2018, Colonel Liam Collins played a key role in US efforts to assist the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense with a series of substantial reforms—ranging from organization and command and control to military training, medicine, and logistics. That experience gives him a unique perspective from which to assess the capabilities of Ukraine's military. With tensions rising amid a Russian troop buildup along its border with Ukraine, he joins the MWI Podcast to share that perspective.

How Capable is Ukraine's Military?

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