War College

An economy in deep trouble. A scandal involving billions in off-shore bank accounts and shell companies. Seemingly endless military entanglements. Sounds like a recipe to bring down any world leader. This week, War College looks at what makes Russian President Vladimir Putin the ultimate special case.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Video games are an industry worth tens of billions of dollars. Games make more money than Hollywood and the music industry combined. Video games can be great fun and even great art, but they can also be great propaganda. A new game called IS Defense puts players on the shores of Europe to defend the continent against waves of faceless Islamic attackers. The FBI, North Korea and even PETA have tried to use games to get their points across. It doesn’t always work and it’s often silly, but governments are only just getting started.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Ukraine pulled itself apart in 2014, the world was confused over who was doing the pulling. Was the takeover of Luhansk, Donetsk and other regional capitals all part of a Russian plan, or a local movement? This week on War College, we speak with Antony Butts. He was in Donetsk when it all went down and has a unique story to tell.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on War College we're diving into the weeds on how weapons systems come into existence. Andrea Shalal, Reuters’ longtime aerospace correspondent, takes us through the steps. She also gives a counterpoint to the show’s very first episode, which focused on the flaws of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter plane and program. In a discussion that may surprise to some listeners, she describes a program that’s back on track, despite its possible trillion-dollar price tag.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Just months before the Sept. 11 attacks, Scott Swanson was piloting an early version of the Predator drone over Afghanistan. Swanson and his team were looking for Osama bin Laden and it looked like they found him. The predator, though, was unarmed. This week on War College, Swanson takes us through the early history of the drone program and tells us how a skunk works project became a central part of the U.S. War machine.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on War College, we’re talking about a secretive nation where everyone serves in the military – and not just for a year or two. In fact, once you get pulled into service in Eritrea, you could be serving for a decade or more. And no one knows how much more it could be.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Snipers play a key role in the world’s armies. They target commanders on the opposing side and other targets with an outsize impact. Working by themselves, they can pin down a group, creating fear and confusion. This week on War College we look at the history of snipers and the role they play now. It’s fair to say the role wasn’t always considered a badge of honor.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Vladimir Putin and the United States staring at each other like the gunfighters in the final scene in the "Good, the Bad and the Ugly," War College takes a fresh look at NATO. We wanted to know what kind of shape the nearly 70-year-old alliance is in.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

President Barack Obama laid out a plan to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison this week. Even if it were to close by the time Obama leaves office, it will have been open for 15 years. So, why is the prison still open, and what would it take to close it? And how important is it, really, to close it?This week on War College, we talk to Reuters' own David Rohde. He's written extensively about Guantanamo and he also knows captivity from the other side, as a prisoner of the Taliban for seven months.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Russia is pulling out all the stops in showing off new weaponry — especially in Syria. Nick de Larrinaga, an expert at Jane’s Defense Weekly, joins the show and explains that the display of force is about more than winning a war. It also functions a kind of advertising campaign for the world’s second-largest arms dealer.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Garry Kasparov, a Russian opposition leader who was ranked as the world's best chess player for most of 20 years, has a problem with the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s Russia and warns of the dangers of the nation's global influence. The title of his new book – Winter Is Coming – is a conscious play on the famous Game of Thrones TV and book series and the sense of darkness stalking the world.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Israel’s defense forces are among the world’s elite. Their training methods are widely copied, actions taken by their soldiers and pilots are legendary. The Raid on Entebbe, the Six Day War, the 1981 air strike that took out a nuclear reactor under construction in Iraq.But those victories were long ago and Israel’s enemies have evolved. This week on War College, journalist Noga Tarnopolsky walks us through the changing face of the IDF. In a country where everybody serves, the role of the soldier is more highly scrutinized and respected than in America. Tarnopolsky explains why Israel is cutting back on officers, strengthening its borders and worrying less about Iran than you might expect.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Saudi Arabia executes a cleric who is a member of the Saudi Shi’ite minority. Iran’s government, which sees itself as the leader of the Shi’ite world, doesn’t work very hard to stop an attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran that follows the execution. Saudi Arabia closes its embassy and tensions between the two nations, which had been growing for years, hit a new high. With hot wars in Yemen and Syria, billions of dollars sloshing around between governments and militias and militant groups, its a good time to look at what’s really going on and what’s likely to happen next.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia has used natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine and Europe as a whole. Threatening to turn shut off the pipes as the weather turns cold is a pretty effective way to influence foreign policy. But now it looks like one of Vladimir Putin’s key weapons is losing some its punch. This week on War College we’re looking at how shifts in the production of oil and natural gas are effecting global security, and where that leaves the United States.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

North Korea sets off a nuclear bomb and how does the U.S. respond? The Pentagon sends a 65-year-old airplane to buzz Korean airspace. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense if the warplane wasn’t the B-52 bomber. Designed in the aftermath of World War Two, obsolete nearly before the last one rolled off the line in 1961 – the Stratofortress may remain in the air for another 25 years.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

North Korea is the most mysterious and oppressive regime on earth. Few journalists penetrate Pyongyang and fewer still stay long enough to understand the country and its people. Jean Lee is one of those determined few. And she’s seen some strange stuff.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Islamic State has many enemies, both around the world and in the Middle East. But there’s one group of fighters that the men of Islamic State fear more than others because, rumors say, to be killed by them doesn’t lead to martyrdom, but to an eternity in hell. These fearsome warriors are members of the Kurdish Women’s Protection Units, and in this week’s War College, we look at the role they – and other women – are playing in the war against Islamic State.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The conditions necessary to allow genocide – to provide one group the psychological “permission” to kill another en masse – come together all too often, in Europe during World War II, in Rwanda, in Bosnia, in Cambodia. This week on War College, we try to understand what those conditions are, and whether climate change may be the trigger for the next great Holocaust.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The media in Russia is lively, often entertaining and largely state controlled. Still, an illusion of freedom remains key for the Kremlin to maintain its grasp over a country that spans 11 time zones. In this episode of War College, we look at how Vladimir Putin crafts his message for both internal and external consumption.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Predator and Reaper drones hang in the sky above Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. Mostly they observe, search for targets – and occasionally they unleash Hellfire missiles. Targets may be large gatherings of suspicious figures, convoys or training camps. They can also be private houses, and sometimes they turn out to be weddings. The theory behind strikes is not mass destruction, but to find militant leaders and kill them, as surgically as possible. But how effective have those efforts been? And who’s making the call on when to take a shot?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.