SERIES 03

This means war

Conversations about contemporary wars, trends and technologies and what they might mean to the future of warfare.

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SEASON 1 / EP.Trailer
An introduction to the podcast
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has stimulated a considerable outpouring of emotion, passion and commentary – not to...

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SEASON 1 / EP.1
Analysing wars for lessons: Context is everything
Peter talks to Ewan Lawson, a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI, about the context of wars and why this is important in...

GUESTS

  • Ewan Lawson

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SEASON 1 / EP.2
A Turning Point in Ukraine?
Dr Jack Watling talks to Peter as he returns from his most recent trip to Ukraine. As both Ukrainian and Russian forces...

GUESTS

  • Dr Jack Watling

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SEASON 1 / EP.3
Fighting in Urban Ukraine
Peter talks to Prof John Spencer, doyen of Urban Warfare at West Point, after his recent trip to Ukraine. They cover...

GUESTS

  • Prof John Spencer

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SEASON 1 / EP.4
Facing A Callous Adversary
As the Iranian proxy in Yemen, the Houthi’s have evolved from a guerrilla organisation to one capable of facing down...

GUESTS

  • Dr Michael Knights

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SEASON 1 / EP.5
Ammo, railroads, tyres and logistics are driving military operations in...
Even though Western militaries systemically underinvest in their own logistics and engineering capabilities, it is...

GUESTS

  • Trent Telenko

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SEASON 1 / EP.6
Fear and Loathing in Tbilisi
A now frozen but forgotten conflict in Georgia dating from 2008 was the result of a Russian invasion and occupation of...

GUESTS

  • Natia Suskuria

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SEASON 1 / EP.7
Learning to fight again – realigning Special Forces
Between 2004 and 2014, NATO armies coerced the militaries and special forces of Georgia and Ukraine into a doctrine and...

GUESTS

  • Dr Sandor Fabian

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SEASON 1 / EP.8
Relishing Duality – flexibility in Russian National Security...
If you look at Russian actions in different regions of the world, their strategies differ considerably. This covers...

GUESTS

  • Katarzyna Zysk

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SEASON 1 / EP.9
Strategic objectives, tough choices, and risk in Ukraine
Supporting a war conducted by others shouldn’t be measured on financial aid committed. A better metric would actually...

GUESTS

  • Lt Gen (rtd) Ben Hodges

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SEASON 1 / EP.10
Sniping, land mines and trench warfare
Nick Reynolds has just returned from Ukraine again and talks to Peter about his experiences and insights after 6 months...

GUESTS

  • Nick Reynolds

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SEASON 1 / EP.11
The Ukrainian Counter Offensive with Prof Mike Clarke
Professor Michael Clarke joins Peter to talk about the 10 day old Ukrainian counter offensives against Russia. In...

GUESTS

  • Professor Michael Clarke

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SEASON 1 / EP.12
Working the OSINT opportunity
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) has matured considerably since the early 2000s. More data sources, better data bases,...

GUESTS

  • James Byrne,

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SEASON 1 / EP.13
War and modern politics with Rory Stewart
Deciding to go to war, to support a war, or even which war to engage with should not be an easy decision. It should be...

GUESTS

  • Rory Stewart

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SEASON 1 / EP.14
What’s happening in Afghanistan?
It has only taken one year from the Western withdrawal out of Afghanistan for that country to descend once more into a...

GUESTS

  • Anant Mishra

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SEASON 1 / EP.15
A China Primer – Fear, Honour and Self-Interest
Is China preparing to invade Taiwan? It is certainly a matter of CCP policy that Taiwan will be reintegrated into...

GUESTS

  • Dr Peter Layton

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SEASON 1 / EP.16
Global disaster in the wings: the vulnerabilities of the West at sea
Ships being sunk by sea mines, undersea pipelines blown up, and a fragile maritime infrastructure are all underplayed...

GUESTS

  • Rob Wilson

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SEASON 1 / EP.17
We know who wears the trousers – The China Russia No Limits...
Despite a shared ideology loosely based around communism, and perhaps a similarly hopeful interpretation of...

GUESTS

  • Theresa Fallon

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SEASON 1 / EP.18
Operational Art, Russia and Ukraine with Mick Ryan
Whilst the battles in Ukraine have evidenced the tenacity and stamina of Ukrainian forces, their success in defence and...

GUESTS

  • Mick Ryan

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SEASON 1 / EP.19
Future War in 2035 and Deterrence
According to the report of a conference of great strategic brains during October 2022, the world will look pretty ugly...

GUESTS

  • Julian Lindley French

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SEASON 1 / EP.20
Fire ships, maritime economics and balanced fleets
Peter talks to Professor Alessio Patalano about whether the naval aspects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine offer...

GUESTS

  • Alessio Patalano

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SEASON 1 / EP.21
China’s dark coercion in the Indo-Pacific
Peter is joined by Dr John Hemmings, a Senior Director at the Pacific Forum in Hawaii, to talk about what might have...

GUESTS

  • John Hemmings

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SEASON 1 / EP.22
Missile Wars with Tom Karako
The use of missiles – of every variety – around the world has been increasing over the past 5 years. Whether...

GUESTS

  • Tom Karako

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SEASON 1 / EP.22
The Operational Level of War Does Not Exist
When Svechen and Hamley were writing about the operational level of war, it is doubtful they envisaged the number of...

GUESTS

  • Wilf Owen

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SEASON 1 / EP.24
War in a Fishbowl
A really capable combined arms force can have a disproportionate impact on a small war. It can have much less effect in...

GUESTS

  • Amos Fox

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SEASON 1 / EP.25
The future of air power
Big contracts are being let for new aviation systems. From the B21 and FLAA in the US, to FCAS and Tempest in Europe,...

GUESTS

  • Justin Bronk

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SEASON 1 / EP.26
The Russia-China military relationship
The Chinese military has come a long way since 2008. In size, professionalism, deployability, operational experience,...

GUESTS

  • Sarah Kirchberger

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SEASON 1 / EP.27
Defence Policy watersheds – again?
The shock and surprise expressed by Western politicians after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine heralded...

GUESTS

  • Ben Barry

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SEASON 2 / EP.1
Ukrainian observations on combat and command
What did the Ukrainian forces learned from their experiences fighting the Russian military during 2022? Peter talks to...

GUESTS

  • Dr Jack Watling

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SEASON 2 / EP.2
The First Commercial Space War
Since 1991 space has become an intrinsic part of warfare: from the liberation of Kuwait to Allied experiences in Iraq...

GUESTS

  • Juliana Suess

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SEASON 2 / EP.3
Turkey, Erdogan and 2023
This year Turkey celebrates its 100th anniversary; 2023 will also bring a summer with elections that could see...

GUESTS

  • Ziya Meral

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SEASON 2 / EP.4
We Live in Radical Times
According to some we are living in both a Post Islamist Age, as well as a Post Liberalist one. And if you read the...

GUESTS

  • Dr Adil Rasheed

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SEASON 2 / EP.5
North Korea in the driving seat?
Peter talks to Ankit Panda from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about all things North Korea, but...

GUESTS

  • Ankit Panda

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SEASON 2 / EP.6
Conventional versus Irregular Warfare – challenges for military...
Meeting the challenges of both conventional and irregular warfare requires mutually exclusive forces specialised in...

GUESTS

  • Dr Jack Watling

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SEASON 2 / EP.7
Cyber battles in Ukraine
How have cyber conflicts played out between Russia and Ukraine? Over the last decade the idea of cyber war had been...

GUESTS

  • Rob Black

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SEASON 2 / EP.8
Info Ops in Ukraine
Peter talks to the inimitable Whit Mason, a strategic communications guru, about why the Ukrainian information...

GUESTS

  • Whit Mason

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SEASON 2 / EP.9
Why military AI development is a necessity not a choice for Russia’s...
Peter talks to Professor Katarzyna Zysk from IFS in Oslo about Russian military AI development, from the core reasons...

GUESTS

  • Katarzyna Zysk

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SEASON 2 / EP.10
How to Fight A War
Why is winning a war so hard? According to Dr Mike Martin, realism seems to be missing in the formation of strategy to...

GUESTS

  • Mike Martin

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SEASON 2 / EP.11
The strategy of attrition
All wars have elements of attrition in them – like it or not. Battles of attrition are not linear either, they depend...

GUESTS

  • Dr Jack Watling

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SEASON 2 / EP.12
By, With and Thru on contemporary battlefields
Special Forces in contemporary warfare will be expected to conduct operations ‘By, with and through’: enabling...

GUESTS

  • Michael Knights

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SEASON 2 / EP.12
The 51%
Western political and military leaders seem to be doing a lot of hard talking about military capability these days, yet...

GUESTS

  • Tess Butler

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SEASON 2 / EP.14
The lifeblood of warfare
When you read the words ‘inventory management’ most military people turn the page. Don’t. This conversation about...

GUESTS

  • Joann Robertson

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SEASON 2 / EP.15
Another Afghan Civil War approaches
China’s agreements on strip mining and rare earth mineral extraction opened the door to significant engagement...

GUESTS

  • Anant Mishra

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SEASON 2 / EP.16
Evacuation Operations, Decisions, and Compression
Even planning a non-combatant evacuation operation is politically and diplomatically fraught – the signals it sends...

GUESTS

  • Ewan Lawson

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SEASON 2 / EP.17
The Credibility of NATO depends on DEAD
Even as Russia rebuilds its way of fighting and combat power over the next 3-5 years, those forces should be easily...

GUESTS

  • Justin Bronk

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SEASON 2 / EP.18
What’s not being covered, defence reviews, and the future
One year on from starting the podcast, the production team persuaded me to answer some of the most popular questions...

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SEASON 2 / EP.19
The new European military heavyweight
Poland is an outlier in Europe: a state that has been willing to resource the national security statements of political...

GUESTS

  • Jakob Knopp

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SEASON 2 / EP.23
A Middle East without America?
For decades, politics, security and economics in the Middle East has been inextricably linked to the USA. Today,...

GUESTS

  • Mike Stephens

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SEASON 2 / EP.24
Japan’s Security Dilemmas
Surrounded by three potential adversaries, hampered by a history that prevents deep alliances with neighbours, and a...

GUESTS

  • Dr John Hemmings

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SEASON 2 / EP.25
NATO structural issues unresolved
Going into the NATO summit at Vilnius, NATO had a three tier membership structure and lacked the political leadership...

GUESTS

  • Professor Julian Lindley-French

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SEASON 3 / EP.1
Is Manoeuvre a Myth?
There is a disturbing undercurrent in Western PME – demonising anything not termed ‘manoeuvre’ or...

GUESTS

  • Amos Fox

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SEASON 3 / EP.2
Manoeuvre Is In A Coma
The opportunities to use manoeuvrist theory on contemporary battlefields are scarce, if they exist at all.  Professor...

GUESTS

  • Professor Tony King

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SEASON 3 / EP.3
What if the deep battle doesn’t matter?
The modern interpretation of manoeuvre theory for warfare holds the deep battle as a central avenue to success. Indeed,...

GUESTS

  • Franz-Stefan Gady

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SEASON 3 / EP.4
Ending Wars – a primer
Bringing conflict to a conclusion usually comes about because of annihilation of one party or the exhaustion of both....

GUESTS

  • Professor Beatrice Heuser

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SEASON 3 / EP.5
Investing in a War Zone
How do companies, businesses, and industry make investment decisions in a war zone? There is no shortage of...

GUESTS

  • Michael Longstaff OBE

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SEASON 3 / EP.6
On Taiwan – Strategic ambiguity, operational clarity?
Beijing seems to have an insatiable appetite for increasing the scale and pace of military operations around Taiwan:...

GUESTS

  • Ralph Cossa

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SEASON 3 / EP.7
DPRK in an era of Great Power realignment
Most people will not have missed the visit North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, to Russia last month. What went without...

GUESTS

  • Ankit Panda

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SEASON 3 / EP.9
Balancing and regional actors
States face complex calculations in balancing their reactions to wars. Many (perhaps most?) governments of the day are...

GUESTS

  • Burcu Ozcelik

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SEASON 3 / EP.10
Future War, Technology and Strategy
In October 2023, an expert group of national security experts from around the world came together at Wilton Park in...

GUESTS

  • Professor Julian Lindley-French

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SEASON 3 / EP.11
AUKUS – a reality check
Peter is joined by John Hemmings from the US and Malcolm Davies from Australia to talk about AUKUS. Since the security...

GUESTS

  • Dr John Hemmings

  • Dr Malcolm Davies

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SEASON 3 / EP.12
Norms and Forms of Warfare
It seems useful to frame some of the discussion about warfare around norms and forms rather than the character and...

GUESTS

  • Dr Paddy Walker

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SEASON 3 / EP.13
A Cautionary Tale from 1973
Intelligence failures, strategic surprise, heavy attrition, mass casualties, reversals, internal rivalries, personality...

GUESTS

  • Lt Col Nate Jennings, US Army

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SEASON 4 / EP.1
NATO isn’t perfect (but it isn’t going badly either)
Professors Peter Roberts and Julian Lindley French try and put the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty in...

GUESTS

  • Professor Julian Lindley-French

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SEASON 2 / EP.4
NATO’s Successes and Unsuccesses
NATO is often trumpeted as the most successful military Alliance in human history: a grand claim indeed. The reality is...

GUESTS

  • Professor Julian Lindley-French

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