War College

Law and order, it’s one of the catchphrases of this election. Crime rates, in some cities in America, are on the rise but crime, in general, is down. But 2020 has been a chaotic year and our news feeds are filled with violent images of militant groups, protestors, riots, burning buildings, and everything in between. The sad fact is that not all crime in America is reported on in the same way, that the protest movement is overwhelmingly peaceful, but not always, and that police militarization has exacerbated all our current problems.Here to help us untangle some of this is Danny Gold. Gold is a Pulitzer Center grantee, a documentary producer whose work has appeared in VICE Nice, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He’s also the host of the new Underworld Podcast—a series about the global criminal underworld.Recorded 10/6/20Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.subs

https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe to listenArmenia and Azerbaijan are at war. Why? It’s complicated. What’s the nature of the conflict? That’s also very complicated. It’s so complicated, in fact, that Russia, Syria, and Turkey are all involved. And it threatens to pull in their allies, all over a war that’s been “frozen” since 1988.Here to help us untangle all of this is Aram Shabanian, a graduate student of Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He also runs The Fulda Gap, a site dedicated to using OSINT to understand modern war. And he’s a member of the Armenian diaspora community in the United States.Recorded 10/16/20The Roots of the conflictNagorno-KarabakhWhy this war got so violent so fastExtrajudicial killingHow the war was announced via a music video on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSh5tm2Hmn0Why 2020 has been going on for at least four yearsThe Iran of it allMilitary spending on either sideWhat happened when the Sov

Remember back when the Berlin Wall fell and history ended? Back when we won the Cold War and America was embraced by allies old and new, becoming the world’s only superpower. The Gulf War was fought and seemingly won.Actually, maybe you don’t. It was the end of the 1980s, after all.George Bush - no, not that one - stood at the center of events, and inside that center stood James A. Baker III.To tell us about the man who ran Washington, and why he remains important, we welcome Peter Baker of the New York Times who wrote the book with his wife Susan Glasser of the New Yorker. The couple’s book, coincidentally, is called The Man Who Ran Washington.Recorded 10/9/20Hey, remember the 1980s?Who was the man who ran Washington?Foreign policy as the presidential big leaguesThe nightmare of facing Jim Baker in an election“Baker was Bush”How to win the Iraq war only to lose it laterHow to navigate the end of historySibling rivalry between Bush and BakerAngry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly i

Things feel surreal all the time now. We’re told that some of our favorite online personalities may just be sock puppet accounts for foreing governments. Russia, in particular, is supposedly a master at the new soft power internet based information warfare. Some people still believe that Trump is a Russian agent, the end result of a longcon forged years ago by the KGB and ushered into power by Russian trolls. Qanon, anti-vaxers, ant-maskers, shitposts, and doing it for the lulz. It can be exhausting. But understanding the myths of the modern age and how they permeate online is a key to understanding our world today. Here to help us figure this all out is Nina Janckowicz. Janckowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in DC. She’s also the author of How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict. She’s also … a huge musical theater fan.Recorded 10/8/20A brief d

Nations rise and nations fall, as do their governments. Today, some people say the United States and its treasured republican virtues stand at a crossroads.But how can you tell? Are we dealing with the mere panic of the moment, or something worth panicking about?To help us get a grip on what’s going on, we’re going to reach into the past, today, to see if history is repeating or just rhyming.Joining us to help us get a grip—and we could probably all use to get grip right about now—is Patrick Wyman.Wyman is the host of the Tides of History podcast, which looks at moments when the world changed, including recent examinations of the world’s first farmers and the effects of plague on the Roman world.Recorded on 10/2/20What defines a Republic anyway?The Res publica“Don’t quote laws to men with swords”How the Roman republic workedA contract with the godsHow the grain dole workedThe private sectorWhy it’s so hard to maintain a RepublicHow cynicism degrades the political systemAngry Planet has a substack! Join the In

What’s the difference between a Proud Boy and a Boogaloo Boi? Are Patriot Prayer and Patriot Front the same thing? If I wear a Hawaiian shirt while eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, does that make me a member of a far right group? How many of these tacticool bearded weirdos are there, really, and are they dangerous? If it feels like the world today is weirder, wilder, and grosser than the one in the past … I feel you. 2020 has seen an explosion of Far Right groups and if you find it hard to keep track of them all, you’re not alone.Here to help us order and sort the Proud from the Boogaloo is Jason Wilson. Wilson is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in The Guardian and Bellingcat.Recorded 10/1/20What’s a proud boy?The Proud Boys debate momentWhy Portland is the rallying point for far right groupsWhat the Justice Department knows and what it’s doingShirt movements, modern and historicBoogaloo boisWhat the numbers tell usThe John Birch SocietyThe Eisenhower ConspiracyAngry Planet has a substack! Joi

America is perhaps more conservative today than it’s ever been. For some on the right, Obama, Biden and Clinton look like socialists. For people on the left, they look like moderate republicans. There’s a reason for both of those views that’s steeped in America’s recent past. U.S. culture was shaped by a suave and smooth talking President who promised we could be a beacon of hope for the world and a shining city on a hill.Here to talk about what happened is Rick Perlstein. Perlstein is a returning guest and the author of the new book Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980. The book is, among other things, the story of how a Southern Evangelical Democrat paved the way for a divorced actor from California to ascend to the presidency and shape America’s destiny.Recorded 9/10/20How voters go from voting for Johnson to voting for NixonAmerica’s moral reckoning, from Vietnam to WatergateWhat Star Wars tells us about America todayStable government under a crook vs unstable government under an honest manCall of D

The Military needs gamers. Over the past few months, the U.S. Army and Navy have spent a considerable amount of time playing video games. The Pentagon is streaming on Twitch, showing up at video game tournaments, and sponsoring esports events. And it’s all in a bid to reach a younger crowd and fill out the ranks. The military is trying to meet young people where they live and, increasingly, they live online playing video games.Is the military’s use of video games as a recruitment tool crossing the line or business as usual? To help us figure that out, we’ve got two guests today. Both returning champions.Here to help us untangle this mess is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and the author of the new book On Obedience: Contrasting Philosophies for the Military Citizenry and Community.We’ve also got Marty Skovlund Jr. Skovlund is a veteran of 1st Ranger Battalion and the Executive Editor of Coffee or Die Magazine.Recorded 8/28/20The long we

Civil wars, proxy wars, cold wars, hot wars. Economic collapse, the collapse of civil societies and governments. Hunger, torture, disease.Many parts of the world seem to be falling apart in 2020, but even then, the Middle East is its own special case.To talk about the state of one of the world’s most turbulent regions, Steven Cook joins us. Cook is the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.He recently wrote an overview for Foreign Policy magazine that captures much of what’s going on—“The End of Hope in the Middle East”Recorded 9/10How bad are things really?How Western powers created a sectarian system in LebanonWho is fighting on the ground in Libya?Russian mercenaries and air assetsIraq as America’s original sin of the current troubles, and why that’s wrongHow Saddam held Iraq togetherFragmentation of the Middle EastIs Saudi Arabia as stable as it seems?The importance of having a vision for the future  See acast.com/privacy for priva

Fort Hood. One of America’s largest military bases is off the long stretch of highway between Dallas and Austin. Its Commander was set to transfer out and take over command of a division at Fort Bliss, but the Army announced on Sept. 1 that wouldn’t be happening.To anyone who’s been following the news, the reasons are pretty clear. At last count, 26 soldiers have died at Fort Hood in 2020. That’s more than have died fighting in Afghanistan this year. Some have been accidents, others suicides. Five were murdered. For Fort Hood, 2020 isn’t an outlier but part of a broader trend that’s tied up in the base’s history and culture as well as its relationship to the neighboring city of Killeen.The story is so complicated and terrible that we needed to speak with two reporters to make sense of it. First we get the big picture from Task & Purpose’s Haley Britzky. Britzky is a journalist working for Task & Purpose whose recent article there This all could have been prevented’ — Inside the disappearance and death

Ghost guns. Untraceable weapons manufactured in the home. They’ve been with us forever, but they’ve taken on a new menace in the age of 3D printers and digital distribution. Here to walk us through the new phenomenon is Mark A Tallman. Tallman is an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security & Emergency Management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He’s also the author of Ghost Guns. Ghost Guns is an in depth, data driven, and dare I say nerdy deep dive into homemade weapons in the post-industrial age.SUBSCRIBE FOR INSTANT ACCESS: angryplanetpod.comRecorded on 8/25/20The second amendmentCody Wilson and his terrible gunWorking on guns is like working on cars“Most gun nerds are low risk”Why ban the bump stock?Additive manufacturing and the DIY weapons of mass destructionRecycling plastics into weaponsThe security implications of the fourth industrial revolutionRaytheon has 3D printed a missileThe tech backlashThe costs of compliance only hit the open sectors, but don’t halt illicit activityThe rise of th

On August 4, an explosion levelled a port in the Lebanese city of Beirut. Aging ammonium nitrate was the direct cause, but that the explosive fertilizer had been left for almost a decade in a storage warehouse speaks to the broader problems in Lebanon. A corrupt government, a financial crisis, a protest movement, and suffering citizens.Here to walk us through what’s going on is Blu Fiefer. Fiefer is a Lebanese performance artist who lives in Beirut who believes in signing truth to power. As the protest movement began, she performed for the crowds and livestreamed her set to the world.Recorded 8/24/20Cleaning up the streetsThe economic collapseLebanon as the “Rising Phoenix” of the Middle East“It wasn’t this bad during the revolution”The day of the explosionExploiting Beirut’s “survivor mentality”The cost of staying in LebanonWhat was lost in the explosionThe Game of Thrones analogyAngry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations abo

Hello and welcome to the final episode of War College.Don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere. We’re just becoming Angry Planet.From time to time we record things that, for whatever reason, don’t quite work. Sometimes the audio is bad. Sometimes the news cycle destroys the story. Sometimes the the very famous, big name podcast host you have on as a guest is clearly drunk and loses his end of the audio. Sometimes you find out the guest is a CIA agent who never set foot in the country he’s talking about and decide to scrap the episode.The following audio is almost one of those episodes, but I think it’s still worth a listen. Back in May just before Jason returned to the show I talked with the British journalist Gareth Browne about Syria, Russia, and Iran. We talked the geopolitics of the region and what’s been happening since Solemani’s death.Some of the information here is out of date, and there’s places where the audio is a little … scratchy. But I think this was a good conversation about some vital stuff and I

Great powers don’t always go great together, often viewing each other as rivals, if not enemies. After the Cold War, the United States was viewed as the last superpower standing. But not only has Russia and its nuclear arsenal stubbornly refused to go away, China has kept on rising.Now, people at the highest levels of government are trying to figure out whether China and the United States can play nice together, but whether the 21st will be the Chinese Century.Joining us to help understand the situation is Matthew Kroenig. Kroenig is both a political scientist and national security strategist at the Atlantic Council. He is also the author of the Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy Versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the U.S. and China Matthew Kroenig.Recorded 8/21/20The innovatorsInnovating with government moneyWhere China’s labor comes fromChina’s soft power strategyA coming generational struggle  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Many people may not realize, but Turkey is a relatively new country--just shy of 100 years old. It was created as a republic out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, largely by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who stuck around as president until 1938.Since then there have been elected governments, military coups and now a -- well, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reshaped the country in his own likeness - or at least how he likes.To help us make sense of it all, we’ve invited Andrew Finkel onto the show. Finkel has been a journalist based in Istanbul since 1989, corresponding and freelancing for a variety of print and broadcast media that has included The New York Times, The Times, TIME, The Economist, The Guardian, the Observer, CNN, and the Financial Times as well as Turkish language media. His popular handbook: Turkey What Everyone Needs to Know” is published by OUP (2012).Recorded on 7/8/20Is Turkey a free country? “No.”Who is Erdogan?What went down during the coup of 2016The Gülen of it allThe state of Tu

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, the CHAZ, the CHOP. It had many names, but from about June 8 to July 1, protesters occupied a portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle Washington. A utopia to some, a nightmare to others, the CHAZ became a symbol to the left and the right. The reality on the ground, as is always the case, is far more complicated.With us today to talk about that messy reality is Nikki West. West is a freelance journalist and former Congressional staffer who lives in Capitol Hill in Seattle. She catalogued life in the CHAZ on her Instagram.Recorded on 8/10/20Daily life in the CHAZViolence in the autonomous zone“The worst Coachella ever”The CHAZ’s well organized systemsRing wing violenceCompeting activist agendasHow to build a city overnightDecolonization cafeWhite WokesStruggle sessionsWhat’s a tankie?Violence and the endThose aren’t fireworksWar College has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a worl

A few weeks ago, two nuclear-armed neighbors got into a fistfight. Actually, there were some clubs and other handheld weapons, too. It was bizarre and people died, more than 20 on the Indian side. The Chinese have been more coy about their numbers.To get a grip on what happened and what it means for the future, we have Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times on the show. Abi-Habib is a South Asia correspondent who is based in India’s capital of Delhi.Recorded 7/22/20India’s army focusHow the battle went downHow to project power without even tryingHow to lose friends and influence your enemiesWar College has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

If there’s one thing that’s always changing, it’s history. And no, we’re not talking about the Confederacy today. We’re back to one of our favorite subjects: Russia.Under the Soviet regime, history was malleable. Events appeared or disappeared like characters in a play. Stalin was a savior, he was a devil. It was all in the telling. But that urge to rewrite history goes way back in Russia, and he who controls the past controls the future, as they say.Joining us today is friend of the show Mark Galeotti. His new book, A Short History of Russia, from Pagans to Putin has got it all covered. Galeotti is an expert on the Russian military, politics, and underworld, the author of many fine books, an honorary professor at University College London and a Senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.Recorded 7/17/20  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode is a special double feature. We here at War College think that the deployment of Federal officers to American cities is one of the most important stories of 2020 and we booked two different guests to discuss it.First, we speak with Robert Evans. Evans is a conflict journalist whose work has appeared in Bellingcat. His most recent article there is What You Need to Know About the Battle of Portland and is required reading on this topic. He’s also the host of the Behind the Bastards podcast, and a Portland resident who has been on the street of the city covering the events for weeks now.We also spoke with Alan Chin. Chin is a photographer, professor, and writer. He’s covered conflict in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia … and now, the United States. He gives us a broader perspective on the protests and what’s happening outside of Portland.Oh, and he and Jason are childhood friends.Robert Evans recorded 7/23/20Evans report on the Battle of PortlandWho are the Portland protests?The rhythm

Afghanistan. U.S. troops have been leaving for years, fast, then slowly, then fast again. There is some kind of peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, but it doesn’t involve peace. The Afghan government isn’t even a party to it.Russia—which lost its own war in Afghanistan a generation ago--may have been paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops.Soon, though, Afghanistan will ostensibly be on its own again. What’s next, aside from more war, of course.To help us understand all of this, we have Kathy Gannon. She is a veteran reporter with the Associated Press based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She witnessed the Taliban’s victory in 1996, the U.S. invasion in 2001, and has won numerous awards for her work. She is the author of I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror in Afghanistan.Recorded 7/21/20The lay of the landWhat the Taliban wantsTaliban VS Kabul The strength of Afghanistan’s warlordsRumors of bounties on U.S. soldiersNo one wants chaos in AfghanistanWar College has a substack! Join