War College

Drones are everywhere. Military drones buzz war zones dropping missiles; surveillance drones hover above neighborhoods, looking for anything out of place; even now, commercial drones hide in holiday wrapping, waiting for excited enthusiasts to fly them in a park.As the market for drones has grown, so too has the market for tools to take them down. There’s jamming rifles, spoofing software, and hundreds of other solutions for downing a drone. But what to buy the budding enthusiast?A new report from the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College could be of some help. The report is a list of 537 counter-drone systems. What works, what doesn’t, and what is just hype.Arthur Holland Michel is the author of the report, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone, and also the author of the book Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It WIll Watch Us All.You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. Y

Last week the Washington Post published The Afghanistan Papers—a blockbuster piece of reporting that details every little thing about what’s gone wrong with the Afghanistan War. As the war grinds through its second decade, the Afghanistan Papers make clear what many defense reporters, government officials, and soldiers have known for years. The Afghanistan War is a costly, pointless, unwinnable mess.Here to walk us through the Afghanistan Papers and its implications is Craig Whitlock. Whitlock is the author of the Washington Post report and an investigative reporter who specializes in national security issues. He has covered the Pentagon, served as the Berlin bureau chief and reported from more than 60 countries.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out in

Luke Skywalker is a household name. Carl von Clausewitz not so much. Learning about the military—especially about strategy and tactics—is a jargon filled slog. War has a language all its own and for decades, military minds have struggled to find an easy way to teach conflict to the common citizen and aspiring officer alike.Star Wars is that language. That’s the theory behind a new book, Strategy Strikes Back, How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict, which teaches military lessons using language and stories from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away. This week on War College, Military strategist ML Cavanaugh and Max Brooks (author of World War Z) take us through the connections between George Lucas’ battlefields and our own.You can listen to War College on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/war-c…d1023774600?mt=2, Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/jason-fields/war-college, Google Play: play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/…yfrxlbf6e6ec6difm or follow our RSS directly: rss.acast.com/warcollege.

We are living on the precipice of a manufacturing revolution. 3D Printing is more than just a hobby your weird rich friends use to make guns, it’s the dawn of a new process of prototype and creation. Additive manufacturing, if you believe the hype, will make it easier to make everything. Including weapons of Mass Destruction. But how real is that threat and how close are we to making chemical weapons at home for fun and profit?Here to help answer that question is Grant Christopher. Grant is a senior researcher at Vertic, a London based think tank that works to strengthen verification of international agreements. He was part of the research team at CERN that discovered the Higgs Boson, and he’s the co-author of a research paper titled WMD Capabilities Enabled by Additive Manufacturing.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for tuning into this special podcast. Last week was a busy one for President Trump and the military. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer was fired. Or did he quit? No, he was fired. Why? Because of how he handled controversy surrounding Navy SEAL and accused War Criminal Eddie Gallagher. That’s … that’s if he was actually fired, which he probably was.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 Warrior, Military Ethics and Contemporary Warfare: Achilles Goes Asymmetrical.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Refugees. People from countries in crisis fleeing oppression and death. America was once a beacon to the world’s tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But things have changed. In the last term of President Barack Obama the U.S. said it would accept 110,000 refugees. That number is now just 18,000. There’s a moral argument here, but also a compelling strategic one. The enemy of my enemy is my friend … but only if you let them be your friend.Here to help us sort this all out is Joe Coon. Coon did a tour of duty in Iraq as a Cavalry Scout for the U.S. Army National Guard. Now, he’s the Senior Vice President and co-founder of the Niskanen Center.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If there’s been a recent throughline or theme on this season of War College, it’s that war has changed. And it’s not just conflict, but the way we cover conflict. Increasingly, people are using open source intelligence and social media to study and report on the changing nature of conflict.Calbre Obscura is one of those people. He’s an independent arms researcher interested in non-state groups in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He is extremely online, and he knows more about AK variants and homemade mortar rounds than anyone else in the world. Follow him online @CalibreObscura and visit his website at calibreobscura.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s fine. Stop asking.Between the climate Apocalypse, tensions in the Middle East, the dissolution of decades old nuclear treaties, artificial intelligence, 3D printed weapons of mass destruction, immortal humans, CRISPR, and drone swarms, it feels like we’re closer to a science fiction apocalypse everyday. These days it’s not a question of when the end of human civilization comes but how. Mike Pearl has spent years obsessing over The Day it Finally Happens. That’s the title of his new book, which studies the various methods by which humanity could achieve mass extinction.Pearl is a journalist whose work has appeared in VICE, The Outline, The Awl, and the Hollywood Reporter. 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.  See acast.

There’s anti-government protests in Hong Kong, Venezuela, and Russia. The civil war in Syria rages on and, thanks to Twitter, VK, Facebook, anyone can share their opinion about world events. Elements of both the left and right say that any anti-government protest in one of America’s rivals is a CIA plot and dictators such as Bashar Al Assad are good, actually. Is this information warfare or just shitposting? Here to help us figure that out is Idrees Ahmad. Ahmad is Lecturer in Digital Journalism at the University of Stirling and a contributing editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Vice, and The Atlantic.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on War College, Syrian journalist Loubna Mrie walks us through life in the early days of the Syrian revolution, how it turned into a nightmarish Civil War, and the consequences of US Withdrawal.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s war all over these days, but it’s different. War has, in fact changed, and the operators of the future are preparing for different challenges in different theaters. The bulk of US involved conflict is happening in the Middle East and North Africa, but the Pentagon is preparing for fighting in more traditional theaters.Marty Skovlund Jr. is a veteran of 1st Ranger Battalion, the Executive Editor of Coffee or Die Magazine and a frequent guest of the show. He’s been covering military training in Europe where he witnessed America’s special operation forces training alongside their European counterparts. The threat they think they might face? It’s decidedly Russian.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On September 14, explosions rocked oil infrastructure in Saudia Arabia. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack and the early headlines stated that the rebel group had attacked the Kingdom with drones. As always, the truth of the attack is a little more complicated. It’s a story of cruise missiles, Iran, and open source intelligence. It’s also a story where how we know what we know is just as interesting as the story itself.With us today is to help untangle this is Fabian Hinz. Hinz is a Research Associate at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey, CA. Hinz is also the author of an excellent post at Arms Control Wonk 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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles have been a cornerstone of America’s campaign against Islamic insurgents in the Greater Middle East. Predator and Reaper drones crisscross the globe firing hellfire missiles on U.S. enemies. Other countries have operational drone fleets, but few match the might and ubiquity of America’s.But journalists on the front lines in Iraq have seen a disturbing new trend - Islamic State using retail quadcopters to drop their own munitions with surprising accuracy. Mosul is the frontline in the fight against ISIS as well as the frontline in a new arm’s race. One that pits the tiny drones of the Islamic State against the budding anti-drone technology of the West.To be clear, Islamic State’s commercial quadcopters rigged with grenades and manufactured missiles is nothing compared to the power of a Predator firing off hellfire missiles with pinpoint accuracy. But that’s cold comfort to a civilian killed by a handmade explosive dropped by a quadcopter over the streets of Mosul.T

Does it feel like there’s just too much information out there and you can’t get a handle on it? Do you have trouble parsing the lies from the truth? Do you know all the places America is at war? Can we even technically call them wars? Are your Twitter followers even real or are they just bots? Are Antifa and the Proud Boys rumbling in the streets a natural extension of electoral politics or just street theater organized online? What if it’s both? Are you tired ALL THE TIME, like me?The answers, or kind of answers, to these questions and more at the heart of the new book This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality. Its author is Peter Pomerantsev, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, and a former Russian TV producer.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: @Wa

Fascism. It’s back and it’s….Ironic?From Hungary to Brazil to the United States of America, facism—yes, fascism—is back in a big way. When our grandfathers beat back the Nazis in World War II, we assumed we’d beaten the ideology into dust. The problem is that fascism isn’t so much a coherent set of beliefs as it is a mutation, perversion, and reaction to the politics of the moment. The truth is, fascism is as American as apple pie and it’s been lingering in the wings for years.Here with us today to talk about the neo-fascist movement and its rise to current prominence is Robert Evans. Evans works with Bellingcat and is the host of the Behind the Bastards Podcast and has just published a free audiobook, The War On Everyone, that charts the rise of America’s fascists.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Do you like independent journalism? Do you like learning about conflict from the best in the business. Well Jake Hanrahan is one of the best in the business and he’s the mind behind Popular Front—a podcast, a website, a documentary series, and a home to independent journalism. Popular Front goes places other journalists don’t go and asks questions other journalist don’t ask.Jake Hanrahan is here with us today to tell us about his recent trip to Rojava, and a new campaign he’s launched on Indiegogo to raise money to keep reporting from the frontlines. If you like this conversation with Jake, you have to check out his podcast Popular Front. He’s also got a great new mini-doc where he goes on patrol in Raqqa and sees what it takes to guard against Islamic State sleeper cells. That’s on youtube.com/popularfrontIf you can, I urge you to go to popularfront.co/10k and donate what you can. You can also pledge monthly support at Patreon.com/popularfrontYou can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or

After a year of protests, Standing Rock began to die down in late winter this year. But to one observer, the standoff stood out for how much it resembled a war zone.Marty Skovlund Jr. is a U.S. Army veteran who served in the 1st Ranger Battalion. He served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Since coming home he’s run a small business, written books and freelanced for several news outlets. In December, he chronicled the final days of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, where state and local police milled with private military contractors and some of the remaining protesters set structures on fire.This week on War College, Skovlund Jr. walks us through the end of one of the largest protracted protests in American history. According to Skovlund, the scene reminded him of forward operating bases in Iraq. In the end, he thinks the police changed the paradigm for how to deal with peaceful protests and, to this day, he can’t believe that no one died.You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follo

Nuclear war. These days it feels like we’re closer to Global Thermonuclear Annihilation than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—an organization of experts that calculates humanity’s odd of Armageddon—seems to agree. The Doomsday Clock is set at two midnight to midnight. It’s easy to see why. On August 2, the US pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, North Korea continues to test ballistic missiles, Russia keeps talking about all its fancy new nuclear weapons, and Democratic presidential candidates are on stage talking about America’s lack of a “no first use” policy. Here to help us figure out how doomed we are is John Carl Baker.Baker is the Nuclear Field Coordinator and Senior Program Officer at Ploughshares Fund. His work has appeared in The New Republic and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach

Libya. Dictator Muammar Gaddafi ruled the country from 1969 to 2011. The Arab Spring led to a Civil War and the deposition and death of Gadaffi in 2011. The country never quite recovered and remains in the throws of a violent Civil War. One most of us in the West, myself included, have not paid much attention to.Someone who did pay attention is today’s guest Robert Young Pelton. Pelton is an author and documentarian with extensive experience covering conflicts. He’s just back from Libya.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on War College, producer Kevin Knodell is back from his trip to the Middle East and he’s got stories. He shares his experiences climbing a mountain in Kurdistan, eating at KFCs that are better than the ones in America, and talks about the future of the region.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.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.