Ep 161: Mackenzie Eaglen on China’s Military Spending and Ours

School of War

Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at AEI and author of Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending, joins the show to discuss the dire situation the U.S. defense budget is in.  

Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow at AEI and author of <a href="https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/keeping-up-with-the-pacing-threat-unveiling-the-true-size-of-beijings-military-spending/">Keeping Up with the Pacing Threat: Unveiling the True Size of Beijing’s Military Spending</a>, joins the show to discuss the dire situation the U.S. defense budget is in. ▪️Times     •      01:22 Introduction     •      02:48 Keeping up     •      05:26 China’s spending     •     10:01 Equipment costs      •      13:46 “Stealing our stuff”    •      18:25 5 alarm fire    •      20:32 U.S. budget truths      •      24:50 BCA 101     •      31:32 Today or tomorrow     •      39:23 Defense is cheaper, not better    •      43:21 Solutions   <a href="https://bit.ly/41EloxN">Follow along</a> on Instagram or YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@SchoolofWarPodcast">@SchoolofWarPodcast</a> Find a transcript of today’s episode on our <a href="http://schoolofwar.substack.com/">School of War Substack</a>

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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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;&nbsp; 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. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>