This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history. Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras.The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.
Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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Alexander Mikaberidze, Professor of History and Ruth Herring Noel Endowed Chair at Louisiana State University and author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History, joins the show to talk about director Ridley Scott’s Napoleon.
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• 02:54 Introduction
• 04:52 First reactions
• 08:18 Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon
• 15:12 Propaganda of the time
• 17:14 No invention needed
• 21:22 Wellington and Talleyrand
• 23:24 Napoleon: Master Tactician
• 27:35 Waterloo
• 33:45 Josephine and Elba
• 35:44 More Napoleon content
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
Cliff May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, joins the show to talk about the neo-imperialism of America’s adversaries and what defending democracy requires.
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• 02:22 Introduction
• 02:39 Taking on Jon Stewart
• 06:50 Starting in the Soviet Union
• 12:26 Policy activism
• 20:11 Foundation for Defense of Democracies
• 26:31 Ending tyranny
• 34:53 The people have to want it
• 41:05 Are we misleading ourselves?
• 43:23 Cracks in the Axis of Tyrannies
• 47:26 Chinese imperialism
• 52:35 Understanding ourselves abroad
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Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack
