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School of War
Learn what war teaches

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 former 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 Hudson Institute. 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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Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London and ⁠No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One⁠,  joins the show to discuss how the British Empire maintained the balance in Europe between the fall of Napoleon to the summer of 1914.
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John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute,  joins the show to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, and what it all means facing China in the Pacific.
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Jeremy Armstrong, Professor of Classics & Ancient History at the University of Auckland and author of ⁠Children of Mars: The Origins of Rome's Empire⁠,  joins the show to discuss the early history of Rome, the role of family and clan in the structure of its military, the transition from monarchy to republic, and the nature of warfare during this formative period. 
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Major General Mick Ryan, Australian Army (retired), Senior Fellow for Military Studies the Lowy Institute and author of the Futura Doctrina substack, joins the show to discuss the current state of the Ukraine war. We cover tactical innovations, the challenges of operations and strategy, the structure of the Ukrainian military, the political landscape under Zelensky, and the industrial capabilities of both Ukraine and Russia. 
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Marc Milner, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick and author of ⁠Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign⁠, joins the show to discuss the turbulent passing of the torch of Western hegemony during WWII. 
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