War College: Recent Episodes
Bringing you the stories behind the frontlines
ICYMI: In Russia, 'fake news' is the norm by Bringing you the stories behind the frontlines
Russia's aircraft carrier may be creaky, but its submarines are among the best in the business and they ply the currents beneath the Arctic at will - though not unchallenged. So, who's challenging Russia and what are the world's powers fighting over in the warming waters?
RE-RELEASE: Dan Carlin, who hosts the Common Sense and Hardcore History podcasts, joined us last year to discuss men and women who fundamentally change the worlds they are born into. Good may eventually come from what these "historical arsonists" do, but the price paid by their contemporaries is usually in blood.
While Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had some good things to say about each other during the 2016 U.S. election cycle, Russia expert Mark Galeotti tells War College a victory for Trump wasn't part of the Kremlin's plan. So what was the real motivation behind Russia's interference?
Dean Yates' view into war and suffering left changed. That he knew. But just how profoundly didn't become clear until he retreated to a quieter life to the place where his wife grew up, in Tasmania.
THIS IS A REPEAT A SHOW FROM MARCH 3. With Vladimir Putin and the United States staring at each other like the gunfighters in the final scene in the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly," War College takes a fresh look at NATO. We wanted to know what kind of shape the nearly 70-year-old alliance is in.
With Russia a wildcard, Islamic State on the run, budgets out of control and several Forever Wars, the next U.S. president will have their plate full.
If you don't know whether or not the U.S. is at war, you're not alone. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are engaged all over the world. In many places they're involved in "kinetic warfare," military jargon that means that bullets are flying. So, the United States is at war, right?
Mosul is as the Iraqi capital of the militant group Islamic State. Out of a population of between 1.5 million and 2 million, 4,000 to 8,000 are armed extremists. They now face a combined military force in the tens of thousands, backed up by some of the world's great military powers, including the United States.
To say the Britain's Royal Navy is legendary is probably to undersell it. There have been thousands of books - fiction and non-fiction - written about its victories during the Napoleonic wars. Its a bit much to expect any organization to keep up that kind of performance for centuries, but the Royal Navy did. That's what makes its current state so surprising.
Depending on where you live, this story will either be shocking or old hat. But even if you have an armed "militia" operating near you, you probably don't realize just how developed these states within a state have become - and how far they've drifted from the majority of American society.
Drug cartel weaponry has gotten deadlier. In 2015, a Mexican army helicopter was shot down in the state of Jalisco. The local cartel used a rocket-propelled grenade to do it. And for years, drug gangs have worked on their navies, moving from cigarette boats to homemade submarines. They have air forces, as well, and fight pitched battles against the army in Mexico and other places. But things are changing.
The separation of church and state is one of the fundamental tenets of the modern Western world, but that doesn't make it inevitable for all cultures. But does that mean that the Islamic world and the Western one are in an existential struggle? Or is that division even meaningful?
Several developments have the potential to move the hands of the nuclear doom clock closer to midnight.
In the 15 years since America first went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has reduced the number of troops on the ground and increased the number of unmanned robots picking off high value targets.
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The United States is the world's largest arms merchant. It's not even close. So, who decides what gets sold, and to whom? And how closely does anyone follow the rules? This week on War College we look at the upsides, and the downsides, of having such a big share of the arms market.
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The United States has more aircraft carriers than any other country. Depending on what you call an aircraft carrier, it's 10 times as many. So why don't more countries have more carriers? Maybe they aren't such a great idea, anymore.
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It's a situation where the United States has interesting choices to make. India and Pakistan are often at each other's throats. Both want U.S. support. Both are allies of necessity for the United States. Both have nuclear weapons. This week on War College we look at a delicate balancing act, where diplomatic failure by the United States could have deadly repercussions for millions.
When the United States Air Force tests a new aircraft it needs to make sure it won't crash should a stray bird slam into the plane's side. Thankfully, the military has an artillery piece with a 60-foot barrel that hurls chicken more than 400 miles an hour. The chicken gun allows the military to make sure no stray bird will foul up its expensive jets while they're mid-flight. If you think the chicken gun is weird, it’s only the tip of a strange and fascinating iceberg.
Hackers released a treasure trove of unpleasant internecine emails on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. The Democratic Party chairwoman was out of a job and tensions between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters were reignited just as the Democrats were trying for a prime-time show of unity. Who were the hackers? Security experts inside and outside the government have pointed the finger at Russia. So, was this an act foreign aggression playing out on a strange new battlefield?
The United States is at war and has been for more than a decade. Although major combat operations in Iraq in Afghanistan have ended, America still maintains a presence in both and will for years to come. It also funds Syrian rebels, bombs Islamic State strongholds in the region and runs drones from Afghanistan to the Horn of Africa. With America fighting on so many fronts, it’s hard to understand the Pentagon’s strategy or the endgame for the various conflicts. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich says it feels that way because it is that way. According to Bacevich, the American military is fighting a war that began decades before 9/11. This week on War College, Bacevich walks us through what he calls America’s War With the Greater Middle East and tells us how it started and why he thinks it must end.
In the West, people tend to think of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strongman dictator – a former KGB man who oppresses his people, censors the media and antagonizes Russia’s neighbors. From the outside, it’s hard for anyone to understand how Putin stays in power, let alone stays popular. And Putin is popular. Pollsters put his approval rating at more than 80 percent. It makes perfect sense if you understand Russia. This week on War College, we sit down with Anne Garrels, a longtime Russia correspondent for NPR. Since the collapse of the USSR, Garrels has spent more and more time in smaller Russian cities and towns, getting to know people who don’t live the cosmopolitan lifestyle of the country's capital. Garrels gives the reasons why Russians love Putin, and why it’s in the best interests of the West to understand them.
Suicide attacks in Paris, Brussels, Orlando, Istanbul. And where to begin in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Israel? Further back, attacks in the United States, Mumbai. Nearly commonplace in Afghanistan and Yemen. Why? What are these young men and women thinking? Are their minds focused on a reward in a world beyond this one, or are the motives more earthly - human? This week on War College, we speak with Roger Griffin, an expert on the motivation behind militant attacks. He offers explanations for actions that seem inexplicable.
Until 1947, the Air Force was part of the U.S. Army. Of course, even then, the Navy had its own airplanes launching from aircraft carriers, protecting the fleets and attacking the enemy largely at sea. Nowadays, the Army has helicopters and transport planes. The Marines have their own fighter jets. Naval aviators are as renowned as their Air Force colleagues and fly missions against ground-based targets. This week on War College we talk with a man who believes the Air Force should be disbanded. That having it separate from the Army does little beyond creating a bureaucracy. In fact, he argues, a separate Air Force has changed the nature of warfare and not in a good way. If all you have is a hammer, he says, all problems become nails.
There’s an argument to be made that humans evolved to fight each other – and to be good at it. But as the United States approaches its 15th straight year at war, rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are high. Many soldiers come home uncertain as to where they fit in and dealing with depression, anxiety and other issues. This week on War College, we look at whether PTSD is a modern phenomenon. If it is, what is it about the way we live now that makes it so hard to transition home from the battlefield?
The United States keeps some very old, very strange-looking planes in its arsenal. But each serves a purpose. The A-10 Warthog provides close-air support to ground troops. The B-52 drops bombs, but is so large and easy to spot that it also sends a message. The AC-130 is also a plane with a specific purpose. It’s propeller-driven and has its guns mounted on only one side. This week on War College, we look at this anachronism and the damage it can still do. Of course, any weapon system is only as good as its guidance.
For a group of scientists working on weapons — some of which could end the world — DARPA has a surprisingly good reputation. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is credited with creating the Internet and runs public contests for human-looking robots and self-driving cars. This week on War College, we look at DARPA and some of the projects that still being carried out under the cover of official darkness.
If you’re looking for a place on the globe likely to spark a world war, you could do worse than the South China Sea. The United States, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan all have claims there. China is building artificial islands and the U.S. Navy is patrolling close by. There have been confrontations at sea and in the air. This week on War College, we’re looking at this global sore spot and asking just how heated is the situation likely to get.
It was just this year that U.S. women were officially allowed in combat roles. That’s officially. But in Afghanistan, American women were on the front lines on night raids with commandos, including the Navy SEALs, six years ago. This week on War College we talk about their stories.
The days of spy vs. spy in the Cold War are long gone. Not only have enemies changed, but their methods and how they can be monitored have also developed. So what is the role of a human spy in today’s conflicts? In this week’s episode of War College, Jamillah Knowles chats with Reuters reporter and author Stephen Grey about his book ‘The New Spymasters.’
An economy in deep trouble. A scandal involving billions in off-shore bank accounts and shell companies. Seemingly endless military entanglements. Sounds like a recipe to bring down any world leader. This week, War College looks at what makes Russian President Vladimir Putin the ultimate special case.
Video games are an industry worth tens of billions of dollars. Games make more money than Hollywood and the music industry combined. Video games can be great fun and even great art, but they can also be great propaganda. A new game called IS Defense puts players on the shores of Europe to defend the continent against waves of faceless Islamic attackers. The FBI, North Korea and even PETA have tried to use games to get their points across. It doesn’t always work and it’s often silly, but governments are only just getting started.
When Ukraine pulled itself apart in 2014, the world was confused over who was doing the pulling. Was the takeover of Luhansk, Donetsk and other regional capitals all part of a Russian plan, or a local movement? This week on War College, we speak with Antony Butts. He was in Donetsk when it all went down and has a unique story to tell.
This week on War College we're diving into the weeds on how weapons systems come into existence. Andrea Shalal, Reuters’ longtime aerospace correspondent, takes us through the steps. She also gives a counterpoint to the show’s very first episode, which focused on the flaws of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter plane and program. In a discussion that may surprise to some listeners, she describes a program that’s back on track, despite its possible trillion-dollar price tag.
Just months before the Sept. 11 attacks, Scott Swanson was piloting an early version of the Predator drone over Afghanistan. Swanson and his team were looking for Osama bin Laden and it looked like they found him. The predator, though, was unarmed. This week on War College, Swanson takes us through the early history of the drone program and tells us how a skunk works project became a central part of the U.S. War machine.
This week on War College, we’re talking about a secretive nation where everyone serves in the military – and not just for a year or two. In fact, once you get pulled into service in Eritrea, you could be serving for a decade or more. And no one knows how much more it could be.
Snipers play a key role in the world’s armies. They target commanders on the opposing side and other targets with an outsize impact. Working by themselves, they can pin down a group, creating fear and confusion. This week on War College we look at the history of snipers and the role they play now. It’s fair to say the role wasn’t always considered a badge of honor.
With Vladimir Putin and the United States staring at each other like the gunfighters in the final scene in the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly," War College takes a fresh look at NATO. We wanted to know what kind of shape the nearly 70-year-old alliance is in.
President Barack Obama laid out a plan to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison this week. Even if it were to close by the time Obama leaves office, it will have been open for 15 years. So, why is the prison still open, and what would it take to close it? And how important is it, really, to close it? This week on War College, we talk to Reuters' own David Rohde. He's written extensively about Guantanamo and he also knows captivity from the other side, as a prisoner of the Taliban for seven months.
Russia is pulling out all the stops in showing off new weaponry — especially in Syria. Nick de Larrinaga, an expert at Jane’s Defense Weekly, joins the show and explains that the display of force is about more than winning a war. It also functions a kind of advertising campaign for the world’s second-largest arms dealer.
Garry Kasparov, a Russian opposition leader who was ranked as the world's best chess player for most of 20 years, has a problem with the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s Russia and warns of the dangers of the nation's global influence. The title of his new book – Winter Is Coming – is a conscious play on the famous Game of Thrones TV and book series and the sense of darkness stalking the world.
Israel’s defense forces are among the world’s elite. Their training methods are widely copied, actions taken by their soldiers and pilots are legendary. The Raid on Entebbe, the Six Day War, the 1981 air strike that took out a nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq. But those victories were long ago and Israel’s enemies have evolved. This week on War College, journalist Noga Tarnopolsky walks us through the changing face of the IDF. In a country where everybody serves, the role of the soldier is more highly scrutinized and respected than in America. Tarnopolsky explains why Israel is cutting back on officers, strengthening its borders and worrying less about Iran than you might expect.
Saudi Arabia executes a cleric who is a member of the Saudi Shi’ite minority. Iran’s government, which sees itself as the leader of the Shi’ite world, doesn’t work very hard to stop an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran that follows the execution. Saudi Arabia closes its embassy and tensions between the two nations, which had been growing for years, hit a new high. With hot wars in Yemen and Syria, billions of dollars sloshing around between governments and militias and militant groups, its a good time to look at what’s really going on and what’s likely to happen next.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has used natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine and Europe as a whole. Threatening to turn shut off the pipes as the weather turns cold is a pretty effective way to influence foreign policy. But now it looks like one of Vladimir Putin’s key weapons is losing some its punch. This week on War College we’re looking at how shifts in the production of oil and natural gas are effecting global security, and where that leaves the United States.
North Korea sets off a nuclear bomb and how does the U.S. respond? The Pentagon sends a 65-year-old airplane to buzz Korean airspace. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense if the warplane wasn’t the B-52 bomber. Designed in the aftermath of World War Two, obsolete nearly before the last one rolled off the line in 1961 – the Stratofortress may remain in the air for another 25 years.
North Korea is the most mysterious and oppressive regime on earth. Few journalists penetrate Pyongyang and fewer still stay long enough to understand the country and its people. Jean Lee is one of those determined few. And she’s seen some strange stuff.
Islamic State has many enemies, both around the world and in the Middle East. But there’s one group of fighters that the men of Islamic State fear more than others because, rumors say, to be killed by them doesn’t lead to martyrdom, but to an eternity in hell. These fearsome warriors are members of the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units, and in this week’s War College, we look at the role they – and other women – are playing in the war against Islamic State.
The conditions necessary to allow genocide – to provide one group the psychological “permission” to kill another en masse – come together all too often, in Europe during World War II, in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Cambodia. This week on War College, we try to understand what those conditions are, and whether climate change may be the trigger for the next great Holocaust.
The media in Russia is lively, often entertaining and largely state controlled. Still, an illusion of freedom remains key for the Kremlin to maintain its grasp over a country that spans 11 time zones. In this episode of War College, we look at how Vladimir Putin crafts his message for both internal and external consumption.
Predator and Reaper drones hang in the sky above Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. Mostly they observe, search for targets – and occasionally they unleash Hellfire missiles. Targets may be large gatherings of suspicious figures, convoys or training camps. They can also be private houses, and sometimes they turn out to be weddings. The theory behind strikes is not mass destruction, but to find militant leaders and kill them, as surgically as possible. But how effective have those efforts been? And who’s making the call on when to take a shot?
The recent terror attacks in Paris shook the world and put the focus back on Islamic State. This week on War College, we talk with American Special Operations intelligence veteran Malcolm Nance. Nance literally wrote the textbook on Iraq’s terrorists and is the executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project.
Many in the West think of the Islamic State as a loose collection of fighters -- rabble who kill, loot and burn. But the truth is more complex, though no less terrifying. Islamic State actually governs the territory it takes and it’s not terrible at it. The group levies taxes, teaches children and organizes garbage pickup.
The host of the Hardcore History podcast joins War College to discuss some of the most powerful figures in history - men and women who burned down the world they were born into and -- many generations later -- are sometimes credited with laying the foundation for progress. But that doesn't mean that's what the arsonist set out to do, or that the people in their way were happy to pay the price.
America’s Special Operations Forces have become instrumental in the war against radical Islam. But few in America know their story or how they operate. Sean Naylor wants to change that. His new book, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of American Special Operations Command, gives readers a window into this secretive world. Naylor talks to us on this week’s War College
The annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine and the military operation in Syria present the image of a confident Russian President Vladimir Putin willing to expend military power for political gain. The truth, according to Dr. Mark Galeotti of New York University, is far more complex.
None of the world’s great powers were ready for the carnage World War I. The armies of 1914 looked a lot like the armies of 1814 … but they didn’t go to war with 19th century weapons. The modern world was born in blood on the battlefields of Europe during the Great War … and the machine gun cut the umbilical cord. This week on War College, we sit down with Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons as he walks us through the Maxim Gun -- one of the earliest machine guns -- and how it changed the pace of war forever.
The need for armies, both ancient and modern, to travel long distances to thwart enemies and take territory has made militaries one of the driving factors behind food science.
It’s the world’s most famous weapon, popular with soldiers, insurgents and video gamers alike. As many as 100 million of the world's guns are descended from Mikhail Kalashnikov's original Avtomat Kalashnikova, first prototyped in 1947. How many lives they've taken is unknown.
People fleeing conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere will pay upward of a thousand dollars for space on a crowded, rickety boat for the trip across the Mediterranean and a chance at a better life. All the walls and guns in Europe won’t stop 60 million desperate, hungry people.
Robert Young Pelton is the author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places and founder of Migrant Report, a site dedicated to tracking the movement of people displaced by conflict. According to Pelton, the massive exodus of people from conflict zones will change the world and set European policy for the next decade.
“[Europe] is viewing this influx — something like a quarter of a million people came across by sea — as an invasion,” he explains. On this week’s War College, Pelton walks us through the realities of the migrant crisis, dispels its most pernicious myth and illuminates the human face of the displaced.
At this point, President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran seems like a foregone conclusion. Unless something dramatic happens, Iran will soon become a larger part of the international community, allow inspectors to investigate its nuclear sites and America and its allies will lift long-standing sanctions.
Even supporters of the deal, such as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, believe that lifting sanctions will allow Iran to become a regional military threat. “I think [Iran] will invest in additional military capability,” Dempsey said during a June visit to Jerusalem.
Yet the Iranian threat may not be quite what opponents fear. Experts agree Iran will buy military equipment once the world lifts its sanctions. But the Islamic Republic will spend years rebuilding both its fragile economy and its lackluster military.
When sanctions lift, the Islamic Republic will most likely rebuild its shattered economy using its oil reserves. But with oil trading below $50 a barrel even before Iran hits the scene, it’s likely years before Iran can buy the weapons it wants.
Iran will also invest heavily in its current military infrastructure. Much of its equipment is 1970s era hardware America sold it when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was in power. It takes a lot of cash and creative engineering to keep it all running.
On top of that, the regional powers surrounding Iran, such as Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are lightyears ahead of Iran in terms of military spending and equipment. All these factors are likely keep Iran from being much of an offensive threat — both regionally and globally — for years to come.
From Star Wars to Battlestar Galactica, few battlefields are as fought over in pop-culture as space. Which makes sense. Since the end of World War Two, people have looked to the stars as the next great frontier of both exploration and warfare.
For the United States, the Space Race was about both prestige and gaining an advantage over its Cold War enemies. And since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, peopled have looked to the skies above and wondered if the next great war might take place in literal vacuum.
But according to David Axe, editor-in-chief of War Is Boring, the war in space won’t look anything like what Hollywood has long pictured. Slow moving robots, lasers and logistics will dominate combat above the skies.
In this week’s War College, Axe dispels the popular myths of space as a battlefield and let’s us know what’s really going on in Earth’s orbit. Axe describes how to weaponize existing satellites, the missiles America and China have developed to knock those satellites out of the sky and the low-cost plans the Pentagon has to maintain its edge in the stratosphere.
This week’s War College looks at nuclear threats around the world and whether U.S. strategy has kept up. Thomas Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, says it hasn’t and explains why that makes the world a more dangerous place.
This week War College looks at some of the weirdest weapons that the U.S. military came up with for use during the Vietnam War. While the nuclear rifle didn’t go anywhere, another invention can be found at raves around the world.
Drones linger over battlefields all over the world, and over places that don’t realize that they’re battlefields until the Hellfire missiles strike.
The United States plans to replace all of its fighter jets with the F-35 in the next decade or so, at a cost estimated to be at least $1 trillion. But the plane’s development hasn’t been smooth. So, is the Pentagon’s plan the smart way to go?