by Modern War Institute at West Point · English · News
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
For years now, the war in Ukraine has been fought on a largely static battlefield—characterized by attrition, with little opportunity for maneuver, and with only incremental changes to the front lines. But recently, seemingly out of nowhere, Ukrainian forces began recapturing territory held by occupying Russian forces. The gains steadily accrued until, in mid-September, Ukrainian officials for the first time confirmed the ongoing Operation Vivaldi. But although the operation's name was only publicly mentioned in September, the foundations of the operation’s achievements extend back months,…
How did George Washington overcome virtually every material disadvantage to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War? How did Ulysses S. Grant turn the tides of the Civil War in the Union’s favor in the crucial year of 1864? How did Dwight Eisenhower manage the overwhelming personal burden of leading the Allied invasion of Europe? The answers to these questions share remarkable continuities, and together they offer a picture into the requirements of successful supreme command at war—and offer lessons that will shape the outcomes of America’s future wars. To explore them, John Amble is…
NATO just wrapped up its 2026 summit in Ankara, Turkey. Over two days of meetings and other events, the leaders of the alliance's thirty-two member states discussed a range of issues and challenges facing the alliance. But what did we actually learn from the summit? In a period that has been marked by intra-alliance friction, were there signs of closing fissures or do divisions remain? And were there indicators of how much progress members have made toward meeting their defense spending commitments? More importantly, how much has boosted spending translated into improvements in defense…
For years of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, US Army forces, along with their joint and coalition counterparts, benefits from a logistics enterprise that ensured every supply need was met. That enterprise—extending from installations at home, through sea and air lines, and all the way to small units in contact—operated largely without disruption by enemy forces. A major war with a peer adversary, however, will present a very different scenario, in which logistics activities will be contested across the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war. To discuss the challenges…
In 1973, the US military took an enormously consequential step when it adopted an all-volunteer force model. That decision has produced the most professional, capable joint force in history. But it hasn’t come without costs—from the large budgets required to maintain it to a shrinking recruitment base that has serious implications for civil-military relations. So what does the all-volunteer force’s future look like? How much have the strategic, economic, and social conditions that drove the decision to adopt the model changed over the past fifty years? Would it hold up in a modern,…
Shortly after taking power in Moscow, Vladimir Putin began consolidating his authority over the Russian intelligence services that had long been deeply embedded in Russian and Soviet politics and a pervasive influence in society. The degree to which he succeeded was striking, ultimately transforming them into organizational assets that remained effective at what they did but were entirely loyal to him. This episode features a discussion with former CIA senior operations officer Sean Wiswesser. The author of Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War,…
For more than a week, the United States and Israel have struck a wide range of targets in Iran with air and missile strikes. Iran’s response has included missile and drone attacks against targets in neighboring states in the Middle East—both US military and diplomatic facilities and public sites including Dubai’s airport. What weapons, on both sides of the conflict, have defined the conflict so far? To explore that question, John Amble is joined on this special bonus episode by Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The MWI…
What were the strategic calculations that drove the United States and Israel to launch a military operation aimed at a wide range of targets in Iran? And are the fundamental objectives of the two partners fully aligned? Inside Iran, as the regime's resilience and the military's capability are under more pressure than they have been in decades, how are institutions responding? What drove the decision to respond with drone and missile strikes throughout the region? How are the Gulf states positioning themselves as they have defended against Russian attacks? What role has the Gulf Cooperating…
The United States has a new National Defense Strategy. Released about every four years, the document offers a window into the way senior defense officials view the global threat environment and identify US defense objectives. But how will the new strategy be interpreted by allies and partners? What about adversaries and competitors? And does formally delineating US priorities offer a degree of predictability on a contemporary strategic landscape characterized by growing instability and a fraying world order? To examine the strategy, John Amble is joined on this episode by Frank Hoffman, Mark…
Examined exclusively as a military operation, the US raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was a stunning success. In the course of just a few hours, the force package launched, accomplished its objective, and returned to base. But before that could happen, planning and rehearsals that likely took place for months set the stage for the mission’s brief execution. To share their perspectives on the operation, John Amble is joined on this episode by Liam Collins, a retired US Army colonel who spent much of his career in special operations units, and Jimmy Blackmon, also a…
Both training and education have always been key elements of the US Army’s readiness. But as new battlefield challenges arise and new technologies emerge, the character of warfare is changing—and it’s changing faster than ever. Keeping up with those changes—and keeping ahead of adversaries we might fight—means that we have to get training and education right. The Army’s success in tomorrow’s wars will hinge on what we do in classrooms and on training grounds today. To explore that challenge, John Amble is joined by a guest who brings unique perspectives on both education and training to the…
Late on the night of September 9, twenty-one medium-sized, fixed-wing drones entered Poland’s airspace. Several were shot down, while others crashed, some deep inside Polish territory. Later that month, a series of drone sightings were reported around airports and military installations in Denmark, even forcing a brief suspension of flights. Beyond suspicion of Russian involvement and the fact that both of these countries are NATO member states, the two incidents share little in common. But together, they offer a sense of the range of ways in which drones can pose threats. To explore those…
Almost since the very beginning the war in Ukraine triggered by Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the conflict took on characteristics of a technological arms race, with each side seeking to innovate to gain a battlefield advantage. As the war has continued, that contest for advantage has taken place on an increasingly rapid scale. The rollout of a drone optimized for a new mission, the development of a new tactic, an advance in electronic warfare—each of these has produced a shorter and shorter window of advantage until the other side counters it with its own innovation. In this episode,…
The United States is engaged in a strategic competition with China. On issues ranging from Taiwan's security to the question of which country will most shape the geopolitical order in the years and decades to come, Washington seeks to secure its objectives, promote its interests, and deter Chinese aggression. But what are China's core objectives? And more fundamentally, how does Beijing conceptualize the US-China strategic rivalry? To explore those questions, John Amble is joined on this episode by Ali Wyne, the senior research and advocacy advisor for US-China relations at the International…
The US Army is in a period of transformation. And much of that transformation centers on technology—from artificial intelligence and robotics to drones and directed-energy weapons. But leaning forward technologically brings both advantages and new challenges. To explore the way the Army is approaching those challenges and pursuing technology-driven battlefield advantage, John Amble is joined on this episode by Dr. Alex Miller, senior science and technology advisor and chief technology officer to the chief of staff of the Army. He describes the ways small-unit experimentation is driving…
The US government established the National Defense Stockpile in 1939 to ensure that in the event of a major conflict, there would be enough raw materials on hand to continue production of vital equipment. Since the end of the Cold War, it has steadily shrunk, now just a tiny fraction of its peak size. Moreover, while its original purpose was stockpiling materials like steel and rubber, US military systems are now dependent on a wider range of both raw materials and finished products—like rare earth minerals and the magnets that require them. And the supply chains for these items are, in some…
When the United States conducted Operation Midnight Hammer, a series of strikes against Iranian nuclear targets, it did so with two key pieces of exquisite hardware: the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator and the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber. But how does the GBU-57 actually work? And what’s it like to fly this type of long-range bomber mission in a B-2? To examine those questions, John Amble is joined on this episode by Air Force University’s Dr. Melvin Deaile, a retired Air Force colonel and strategic bomber pilot with operational combat experience in the B-2. The MWI Podcast is produced…
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…
When Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it galvanized both NATO and the European Union, doing more to unify much of Europe than any event in recent history. But how has political and strategic unity translated to improvements of collective European defense and deterrence? Amid uncertainty about continued US support for Ukraine, which European states are stepping into leadership roles? And most broadly, after three and a half years of war, how much has the European security landscape changed? To explore those questions and more, John Amble is joined on this episode of the MWI…
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…
National security professionals often conceptualize a continuum of conflict as a framework to understand the wide variety of ways in which conflict can manifest itself. It extends from relative peace on one end, terrorism and low-intensity conflict, up through large-scale combat, all the way to strategic rivalry in which nuclear weapons even come into the picture. But what if that cognitive framework no long holds? In a recent article published by Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mara Karlin explored that question. A professor of practice at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International…
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…
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…
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…
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, one of its first targets was the city of Mariupol. Despite being outnumbered by—and less well equipped than—their adversaries, Ukrainian defenders held out for three months. As the Russian siege of the city intensified, Ukrainian forces defended a shrinking perimeter with a command post in the Azovstal steel plant. One of those Ukrainian defenders was Sergeant Arseniy Fedosiuk. MWI's John Spencer had the opportunity to speak to him about his experience in Mariupol, and you'll hear part of that discussion in this episode. The MWI Podcast is…
Writing is often treated as a peripheral activity in the military, but it is a defining characteristic of any profession—including the profession of arms. Professional military writing is the way we share information, new ideas, and creative solutions to collective problems. It’s the way we drive bottom-up change. And it’s vital if the Army is to be prepared for the challenges of tomorrow’s battlefield. On this episode, John Amble is joined by two two leaders of the Harding Project, an initiative aimed at renewing professional writing in the Army. Lieutenant Colonel Zach Griffiths and…
During the United States’ post-9/11 counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, many US service members survived wounds that would have been fatal in any previous conflict. This was largely because of the care they received—beginning at the point where they were wounded and continuing through evacuation to medical facilities in theater and transport to military hospitals at Landstuhl, Germany and in the United States. But prolonged casualty care will be vastly more challenging in what the Army calls LSCO (large-scale combat operations) environments. To explore why—and what will be…
Both military practitioners and scholars believe that artificial intelligence will influence the character of war in the future. But it’s difficult to know how it will do so exactly, particularly as we look further and further into the future. Much of what we learn about that future will come from experimentation that yields lessons not just about the tools that will become increasingly important in future military operations, but the way that militaries develop them. That makes the recent experience of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, which operationalized an AI-enabled software called the…
Thirty years ago this week—on October 3, 1993—US special operations forces launched a mission in Mogadishu. It was part of Operation Gothic Serpent, which was aimed at capturing Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The mission was intended to be of a short duration. But things changed when, shortly after members of Task Force Ranger launched from their base, fighters on the ground began firing on US aircraft. The battle that ensued—which would later become the subject of journalist Mark Bowden’s book, Black Hawk Down, and subsequently a film of the same name—lasted well into the next day. In…
When news emerged from Lebanon recently that several thousand pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah had exploded, observers quickly began piecing together an assessment of what happened. It looked to be an Israeli intelligence operation—and a wildly successful one, both operationally and psychologically. But why did Israel pick now to conduct it? Is it likely to become just another episode in an ongoing shadow war between Israel and Hezbollah or lead to a dramatic escalation? And how is Hezbollah likely to respond to this glaring failure in its operational security? Colin P. Clarke,…
About Modern War Institute
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
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