Ep 206: Cleo Paskal on China’s Central Pacific Strategy

School of War

Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior fellow at FDD and author of Crossroads of Competition, joins the show to discuss China’s campaign for influence and control at the scene of America’s bloody island-hopping campaign in WW2.

Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior fellow at FDD and author of <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/03/20/crossroads-of-competition/">Crossroads of Competition</a>, joins the show to discuss China’s campaign for influence and control at the scene of America’s bloody island-hopping campaign in WW2.
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Times 
    •      01:35 Introduction
    •      04:03 Pacific desert   
    •      07:45 Control  
    •      13:48 Post 1945
    •      22:43 Significance      
    •      24:31 Yap
    •      29:43 Divisions      
    •      32:18 Diplomatic maintenance
    •      35:54 Designs
    •      41:30 Strategic concerns  
        
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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 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.&nbsp;&nbsp; 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. <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>