Defense One Radio

This episode, we travel to Paris to meet a historian from Mosul named Omar Mohammed. He's the man behind the secretive blog and Twitter account "Mosul Eye" (@mosuleye). He’ll tell us all about his life, his family, his love of Mosul’s history, and his concerns for the future of Mosul, Iraq and the greater Middle East. Read more about the 2016-17 Mosul offensive in our special report here https://www.defenseone.com/feature/mosul-largest-battle-decade-future-of-war/ Next week we’ll be back with more on the 2017 Mosul offensive from Mike Giglio of The Atlantic. He was there for the offensive, and he’s got a book coming out on it all this autumn. And we’ll hear from former CIA man Dan Gabriel, who just produced a documentary on the Mosul offensive called simply enough: “Mosul.”

This episode, we’re joined by Dr. Ash Carter, who just published "Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon." He first started working at the Pentagon in 1981, and wound up playing an unlikely role in the so-called “Star Wars” missile defense program during the Reagan administration. Nowadays, he works at Harvard where he directs the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School. Carter sat down with Defense One to talk about past wars, future wars, the importance of friends, America’s youth, China, what it takes to succeed in the Pentagon, how not to waste a $750 billion-dollar defense budget — and even theoretical physics. (The discussion begins at the 1:48 mark.) Read more about Ash Carter and his book here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/06/former-defense-secretary-ash-carter-talks-iran-china-and-trumps-late-night-tweets/157741/

Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber and Ben Watson talked with the UK’s Minister Counsellor Defence Edward Ferguson about F-35s, aircraft carriers, NATO, Russia, the South China Sea, deterrence, the defence secretary, arms sales, and more.

This episode we bring you two conversations with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron from the Shangri-La Defense dialogues — which happened this past weekend in Singapore. Kevin sat down with the State Department’s Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Andrea Thompson, at the 26:34 mark. But first, Baron spoke with Dr. Kori Schake, the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, at the 0:49 mark.

Nuclear weapons have taken on growing importance during the Trump presidency. Today we’re going to speak with a couple of researchers and analysts — Erin Connolly of the Center for Arms Control, and Jamie Withorne of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies — who have been thinking about nukes and the cultural and political issues surrounding them throughout the country. (That begins at the 3:41 mark.) And we’ll end (25:34) with a retrospective looking back at the dangerous days of the Cold War, back when the U.S. and Soviet governments grappled with how to protect their citizens from nuclear war. Edward Geist of RAND recently published a comparative history of nuclear aftermath planning called “Armageddon Insurance: Civil Defense in the United States and Soviet Union, 1945–1991.” And he joins us by phone to talk all about it. You can find Jamie's work on classic paintings and nuclear weapons technology here: https://inkstickmedia.com/classics/ And you can read more about Girl Security here: https://www.girlsecurity.org/

This episode we’re going to look into why the U.S. military is escalating its air campaign in Somalia (at the 2:19 mark). We'll look into the larger strategy to which this is aimed (10:44). And (22:46) we'll ask if there are 21st-century lessons the U.S. military is learning from the same war-torn country that gave it “Blackhawk Down” almost 30 years ago. We’ll hear from a professor who has been studying the Somali National Army for quite a while now (Dr. Paul Williams of George Washington University). We’ll hear from a former Air Force bomb disposal technician who now investigates alleged civilian casualties for the human rights group Amnesty International (Brian Castner). And we’ll speak to a Pentagon official (Michelle Lenihan) about the long list of challenges ahead not just in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, but also Nigeria, Mali, and throughout the wider continent. Special thanks this to Katie Bo Williams. // Music by Paul Mottram and Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com Read a transcript of this episode here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/04/ep-42-escalating-somalia/156187/ Find Dr. Williams' analysis of the Somali army here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402390.2019.1575210

How has climate change cost the United States military already? And what sort of costs can the Defense Department expect to pay in the future? In this episode, we’re going to investigate matters of "resilience" and base design as part of a broader look at how climate change will likely affect the U.S. military in the years ahead. • Chapter 1: The damage (at the 2:03 mark) • Chapter 2: A turning point. (22:23) • Chapter 3: Adaptations (32:40) We’ll hear from a man who was the Navy’s chief oceanographer just a few years ago, Dr. David Titley. We’ll hear from a climatologist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Benjamin Santer. And we’ll talk to a man who helped draft one of the most recent reports on climate change from the Pentagon, John Conger, who directs the Center for Climate and Security. // Music by Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com. // Let us know what you think: email your thoughts to production@defenseone.com • Read a transcript of this episode here: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2019/03/ep-41-climate-change-versus-us-military/155948/ • Find the 2018 Pentagon infrastructure report here: https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/tab-b-slvas-report-1-24-2018.pdf

We’re going to extend a few of the conversations we began last week when we dug into the future of U.S.-Russian relations. • Professor Mark Galeotti returns (at the 1:38 mark) to tell us a bit more about Vladimir Putin and why corruption is a much bigger problem for Europe than disinformation. • Then (7:00) we’ll pivot to all things missile-related with a conversation between our very own Marcus Weisgerber and Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. • And we’ll end (34:54) with a word on carrier-killing missiles from the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson in a recent appearance at the Atlantic Council. Our music this week is by Terry Devine-King and Philip Guyler, via AudioNetwork.com.

This week we’re going to take a look at Russia and the future of the U.S.-Russian relationship, in three chapters: • After Putin (at the 1:30 mark); • Before Putin (17:14); • Now what (28:16). We'll revisit a battle against the Mongols 639 years ago, move ahead to Putin’s “zoo” of scary long-range weapons unveiled last year, and all the way forward to the challenges that come well after the Department of Justice’s Trump-Russia probe here in 2019. Our guests this week are Michael Carpenter, Senior Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington; Mark Galeotti, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London; Pavel Podvig, a physicist trained at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; and Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Our music is by Terry Devine-King, Barrie Gledden, Richard Lacy, David Kelly, Helen Jane Long, Philip Guyler, Tim Garland and Sam Wedgwood — via AudioNetwork.com. Related reading: "We Need to Talk About Putin," a 2019 book by Mark Galeotti (link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G2VVRVB/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2); "Kulikovo, 1380: A Battle Almost Lost in Myth," a recent essay also by Mark Galeotti (https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Kulikovo_1380/); and "Self-assured destruction: The climate impacts of nuclear war," a report from Alan Robock of Rutgers and Owen Brian Toon of the University of Colorado-Boulder, here: http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/RobockToonSAD.pdf

We’re going to continue our exploration of the U.S.-China relationship, which we began last week with our investigation into the history of tensions between the U.S. and Chinese navies in and around the South China Sea. This week we turn our attention to the future. Specifically the how the Chinese Communist Party views its future. Because the more we spoke with analysts and observers about the South China Sea, the more we heard we ought to look not only at that troubled body of water you can spot on a map — but also to the fundamental differences in how China’s leadership views the world, how it views competition with the United States and its allies, and perhaps most importantly, how Chinese leaders view power, control and history. • Chapter one: Staying in power (at the 1:24 mark); • Chapter two: Revising history (19:57); • Chapter three: Some thoughts about how to move forward (37:53). Like last week, our guests include Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security; Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Andrew Wilson of the U.S. Naval War College (not speaking on behalf of the Navy or the Defense Department); and Pamela Crossley of Dartmouth University. Special thanks as well this week to Paulina Glass. Music by Terry-Devine King, Chris Blackwell and Tim Garland via AudioNetwork.com • Related reading: "Social Credit" by Samantha Hoffman via ASPI: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/social-credit + "Xi’s China Is Steamrolling Its Own History," by Pamela Crossley: https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/29/xis-china-is-steamrolling-its-own-history/ + "Battlefield Singularity Artificial Intelligence, Military Revolution, and China’s Future Military Power" by Elsa Kania via CNAS: https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/battlefield-singularity-artificial-intelligence-military-revolution-and-chinas-future-military-power

This week on the program, we’re going to explore the U.S.-China relationship beginning with tensions in and around the South China Sea. It's broken up into three parts: 1. How did all this begin? (at the 2:58 mark) 2. What's in it for Beijing? (11:16) 3. Where to go and what to know from here (24:28) Our guests include Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security; Greg Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Andrew Wilson of the U.S. Naval War College (not speaking on behalf of the Navy or the Defense Department); and Pamela Crossley of Dartmouth University. Special thanks as well to Paulina Glass, Katie Bo Williams and Marcus Weisgerber. • Related reading: "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?" by Graham Allison. (https://www.amazon.com/Destined-War-America-Escape-Thucydidess-ebook/dp/B01IAS9FZY) and "China Goes to Sea," a 2009 collection of essays from the Naval Institute Press (https://www.amazon.com/China-Goes-Sea-Transformation-Comparative/dp/1591142423).

This week on the program, we turn our ear to America’s ally across the pond, the United Kingdom. Our guest is Will Jessett — the current Director for Strategic Planning at the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence in London. Our Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber sat down with Will to talk though the UK’s new defense modernization review, released in December, and how the British defense world is planning for an uncertain future of Russian revanchism and possibly expanded integration with the Chinese economy in the decades to come. // Music by Terry Devine-King, via AudioNetwork.com • Read the UK Ministry of Defence's modernization review here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/modernising-defence-programme-update

This week on the program: • It's a new year, and we have a new defense secretary — an acting one anyway, for now. Parts of the U.S. government are shut down over the border wall President Trump promised in his election campaign. • The bottom line up front: This does not appear to be a time of order or coherence in the White House. There are lots of posts filled by folks in acting roles, including the Pentagon’s top job. • We'll go over the new SecDef (beginning at the 2:43 mark), the shutdown (15:36), and more with Executive Editor Kevin Baron, Tech Editor Patrick Tucker, Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber, and Government Executive's Eric Katz. // Music by Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com.

For the first time ever in 2018, a president of the United States spoke face to face with the leader of North Korea. Yet six months later, the Korean peninsula remains one of the world’s three most dangerous flash points. • On this, our final episode of the year, we’re going to revisit what we learned about the two Koreas, President Trump and the future of the peninsula. We’ll be joined by about a half-dozen guests, including Melissa Hanham, Joshua Pollack, Joe Cirincione, Uri Friedman and Jeffrey Lewis. // Music by Paul Mottram and Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com

President Trump stunned many across the world this week when he declared ISIS had been defeated. Now he wants America’s roughly 2,000 troops out of northeastern Syria, where they’ve been fighting alongside local Arab and mostly Kurdish forces since October 2015. It’s a demand that wasn’t necessarily without warning. And it’s a decision so controversial Defense Secretary Jim Mattis became the first defense secretary in U.S. history to resign in protest of a sitting U.S. president’s policies. • Today we’re going to revisit some of our most memorable Syrian forecasts from more than a half-dozen of our guests this year, including Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Heiko Wimmen, Charles Lister, Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, Gen. Joseph Votel, Mara Karlin, Jason Warner and Hassan Hassan. // Music by Paul Mottram and Terry Devine-King via AudioNetwork.com