Defense One Radio

This week on the program: • President Trump abruptly reversed course and now wants $750 billion for the U.S. military in fiscal year 2020 — a sudden $50 billion increase over his old plans. We’ll ask why the change might have happened, and what’s $50 billion really in the big picture? Global Business Editor Marcus Weisgerber posed those questions and more to Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (beginning at the 2:25 mark). • Then (22:10) we’ll mark the birthday of a very special organization that turned 382 years old this week. Angry Staff Officer joined us to celebrate with some history, an interesting new project he’s working on for NCOs, and why he likes Star Wars movies so darn much. • And we’ll end (35:25)with a short chat on the U.S. Air Force’s Kessel Run program with former enlisted man and current civilian supercoder Adam Furtado. *** • Read CSIS's series "Bad Ideas in National Security" here https://defense360.csis.org/series/bad-ideas/ • Find Angry Staff Officer's NCO Club online here https://angrystaffofficer.com/category/the-nco-club/ • And read more about the Kessel Run project online here https://kesselrun.af.mil/

This week on the program: • The true origins of the Islamic State terrorist group. Hassan Hassan, a Syrian-born scholar of the Middle East, recently found a 93-page document from ISIS chronicling the jihadi landscape of pre-9/11 Iraq. New details show that the man originally thought to have created ISIS — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — was not at all the group’s creator. Hassan tells us all about a man named Abu Ali al-Anbari and this new, revised history of al-Qaeda in Iraq. • Then in our second half, we’ll consider the United States’ global war on terror now 17 years after 2001, what seemed to work, some things that didn’t, and where it could be headed in the years to come. *** Qs for Hassan Hassan: 1. [2:07] Can you remind our listeners who we all believed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to have been before you wrote your article? 2. [4:05] How did you come across this revelatory new information about Abu Ali al-Anbari? 3. [6:19] Why didn't you buy Zarqawi as the driving force others believed him to be? 4. [12:19] The “ideological contours” of al-Qaeda, as you called it — you write that these were in place in Iraq before Zarqawi entered the scene. Can you tell us a bit about why those things preceded Zarqawi? 5. [16:50] So what, if anything, does this change about how nations resist al-Qaeda and off-shoots like ISIS moving forward? 6. [18:00] What does all this suggest about the future of ISIS? 7. [22:05] Have you considered re-writing any portions of your 2015 book, “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror?” 8. [23:56] U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie — President Trump’s new nominee to lead U.S. Central Command — told lawmakers this week that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is "a very scared man running for his life in the desert." Is that your impression as well? 9. [25:48] How did Abu Ali al-Anbari get on the U.S. military's radar? 10. [26:24] What are your thoughts when you consider how long America has been openly at war with al-Qaeda — and offshoots of al-Qaeda? 11. [33:47] Is there anybody out there that you’ve seen who appears to be doing productive work or who is on the right track when trying to address the roots causes of extremism today? 12. [39:49] Has the U.S. overstayed its welcome in the Middle East? 13. [43:48] There's a tolerance developing in eastern Syria and parts of the Middle East where sectarianism had dominated in recent years?

This week on the program: • Crisis in the Sea of Azov. We’ll talk about the latest in Ukraine-Russia tensions (at the 1:58 mark) with some input from retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe, and Defense One’s Patrick Tucker.   • We’ve got some news on President Trump’s push for a Space Force. Our own Marcus Weisgerber will fill us in on that (11:23). • And we’ll end today (22:43) with a visit to the crossroads of anthropology and nuclear weapons. Martin Pfeiffer, a researcher from the University of New Mexico took a look at the atomic advertising of the 1950s and early 1960s. He’ll tell us a bit about how Americans created meaning around the bomb then and today.

This week on the program: • How does the conflict in Syria end? Ambassador James Jeffrey, the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for Syria Engagement, sat down (at the 1:56 mark) with CNN’s Elise Labott for our 2018 Defense One Summit this Thursday in Washington. We’ll bring you that discussion with the often blunt ambassador. • Then (33:39) we’ll turn to a discussion about conflict, competition and the future of security in Asia. NBC’s Dan DeLuce sat down with Sue Mi Terry of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Georgetown University's Evan Medeiros.

This week on the program: • What would happen if the United States pulled all of its troops out of Afghanistan before reaching a settlement with the Taliban? We ask Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (at the 2:16 mark) and Bill Roggio of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (25:35) that exit question and a lot more. • And we'll end (41:51) with some perspective from Afghanistan. Abdul Habib Hassan is a country advisor to NATO in Kabul. He tells us what gives his family hope for tomorrow. —Music by DeBraun Thomas, Daniel Mohler, Smith Donaldson and Paul Mottram. Find Seth Jones's article here: https://www.csis.org/analysis/us-strategy-afghanistan-perils-withdrawal

This week on the program: • During a flight over Turkmenistan this week, America’s top commander in the Middle East spoke by phone with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron. Kevin explains (at the 2:07 mark) what Gen. Joseph Votel told him about America’s military involvement in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and more. • Then (30:32) we’ll turn to exosuits and pack robots of the future — many are already available, and they’re only getting better. We’ll hear from Paul Scharre and Lauren Fish about those and other robotic gadgets you just might find on soldiers 20 and 30 years from now. • And we’ll end (49:48) with a conversation on the quieter wars — and sometimes not so quiet ones — going on every day in the chatty spaces of our Facebook and Twitter feeds. P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking — co-authors of a new book about the weaponization of social media called “LikeWar” — join us to talk about radicalization in America, determining fact from falsehood, and whether we humans are even capable of disagreeing more productively in the months to come. —Read the report coauthored in part by Paul and Lauren over at CNAS, here: https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/emerging-technologies-1

This week on the program: • A suspect in the U.S. pipe-bombing spree appears to have been apprehended in Florida. We’ll dig into the effects (at the 2:21 mark) of that domestic-terrorism-dash-election-disruption story that’s spanned a decent portion of the continental U.S. — from California to New York.  • On the southern U.S. border, the White House is sending 800 more soldiers on top of the 2,100 already there. We'll discuss what can they do there (11:24).  • The U.S. wants to exit a key nuclear weapons treaty with Russia. Tech Editor Patrick Tucker helps us understand what that could mean for U.S. weapon systems (17:16).  • And NATO just began its largest military exercises since the 1980s in Norway. We’ll review what’s going on there and why (27:41).

This week on the program: • Cornell Anthropology Professor Magnus Fiskesjö talks (1:34) with Paulina Glass about how developments in a remote province in western China are setting off alarm bells in the White House and in the international community. • Then (15:25) we’ll get some strategic perspective on the actual and overblown threats posed by the rising power of China’s military and economy — with Dr. Robert Farley of the University of Kentucky. • And we’ll end (28:53) with a look at some of the latest research in coal — with UK’s Jim Hower, Jack Groppo and Daniel Mohler — and how elements left behind by burning the stuff winds up powering some of today's most important military equipment, as well as the device you might be using right now.

• This week we learned one of the men believed to have poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the southern Great Britain city of Salisbury this past March may have in fact been a trained medical doctor. We’ll talk (1:59) with one of the open-source investigators who helped unmask those Russian spies, Aric Toler of Bellingcat. • Almost exactly one year ago, the deadliest terrorist attack in Africa’s history took place in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The culprits: al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia. We’ll hear (15:41) from the authors of a new book — Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph from Voice of America — about the group, its history, and an outlook for how long its reign of terror may endure around the Horn of Africa. • Then (33:36) we’ll turn to America’s allies in the British navy. They recently welcomed the world’s most advanced combat aircraft — the F-35 — to their lone aircraft carrier training in the Atlantic Ocean. Our own Marcus Weisgerber was there and tells us what it means for America’s ally across the pond. • And we’ll end with an interview with Bell Helicopter’s CEO Mitch Snyder. He sat down (42:47) with Marcus to talk about the V-22 Osprey, the possible future of aircraft taxis, China, and more.

This week on the program: • Former Nebraska Senator and Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel came by our offices at the Watergate this week to help us celebrate Defense One’s fifth anniversary. Hagel sat down (2:05) with Executive Editor Kevin Baron to talk about the Trump White House, the Greatest Generation, putting country over party, NATO, China and more. • Then (39:54) former Pentagon officials Rosa Brooks of the Georgetown University Law Center and Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies join Kevin to assess and expand on many of the ideas Secretary Hagel shared.

This week on the program: • President Trump took to the UN to say China is meddling in American politics — and trying to thwart him in particular. Defense One Tech Editor Patrick Tucker and Editorial Fellow Paulina Glass help explain (1:59) what really seems to be going on there. • Then (17:13) we’ll pivot to the war in Syria and Syria’s ally, Iran. How long does U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis want American troops staying in Syria? And how long does Trump’s National Security Adviser, John Bolton, want them to stay? Senior National Security Correspondent Katie Bo Williams gets into that and some of the less public efforts to constrain Iranian influence in the region and beyond. • Ukraine wants to build a navy to deter Russia around the Sea of Azov (26:24). Is that even possible? • And we’ll round things out by speaking with deployed Brig. Gen. Scott Jackson (36:11) of the U.S. Army’s 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade. Jackson called us from Gardez, Afghanistan, to share what he’s learned after eight months on the job in the eastern Paktiya province, bordering Pakistan.

This week on the program: • How to rethink America’s force distribution across the Middle East. Can it be done smarter? Can it be done cheaper? Mara Karlin of the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Melissa Dalton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies sat down (1:49) with Defense One’s Bradley Peniston to answer those questions and more. • Then we’ll turn to one of the newest weapons of war — consumer drones packed with explosives. We’ll speak to Arthur Holland Michel (29:11) of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, and (35:04) Brett Velicovich of Expert Drones to learn about the gear that’s emerged to stop these things, how hard it is, and how market dynamics are creating an arms race to both reduce and enable the dangers of consumer drones.

On this special edition of our podcast, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg sits down with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron at the studios of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Discussed: • How the secretary is still selling and justifying NATO's existence after the NATO summit • Why Afghanistan is still worth it • The real threat from Russia is... • What Secretary Stoltenberg likes about early morning jogs in Washington + much more.

This week on the program: • We talk about drones, the national security bureaucracy, and the American way of war (1:49) with Loren DeJonge Schulman of the Center for a New American Security — and co-host of the Bombshell podcast over at War on the Rocks. • Then (21:49) we’ll check in on the "Houthi war machine" in the mountains and valleys of Yemen. Dr. Michael Knights of the Washington Institute is back from a visit to the conflict’s front lines. And he joins us to paint a startling picture of a rapidly-evolving 21st-century insurgency. • And we’ll end (40:20) with a discussion on the prospects for nuclear war between the U.S. and North Korea. Dr. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies speaks with us about his new speculative novel, “The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States.” Extra reading: • Loren's report on U.S. drone use can be accessed here https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/08/trumps-secret-war-terror/150448/ • Find Michael's recent report on the Houthis here https://ctc.usma.edu/houthi-war-machine-guerrilla-war-state-capture/ • And Jeffrey's novel can be purchased on Amazon here https://amzn.to/2LIihij

This week on the program: • For the last several days, UN officials have been warning against an imminent “bloodbath” in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, where Russian jets this week resumed airstrikes against rebels quarantined there over the last several months. We’ll speak with Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group (1:49) about the risks and stakes of escalating in Idlib — and what the Syrian conflict is teaching us about great powers in the 21st century. • Then (18:45) we’ll check in on the Saudi-led war in Yemen with Peter Salisbury of the London-based Chatham House. He’s written multiple reports on what he’s called the “chaos state” that is that country. And we’ll get his read on where the complicated war is headed… and how he found himself even watching the fighting in the first place.