War College

It's easy to say the words "two-state solution" between Israel and the Palestinians, but as Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations explains, there are plenty of reasons why there hasn't been one so far. We also take another look at "moral" war in a tight space. What's the difference between collateral damage and a war crime? And has world opinion turned permanently against Israel? We also talk to Steven about his upcoming book, The End of Ambition: American's Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East.Recorded 3/8/24.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since the middle of December, a U.S.-led coalition has been trading munitions with Houthis in Yemen. The day after Christmas, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began participating in strikes against targets along the coast. It hasn’t left since and the conflict between a group of international allies and the Houthis has continued.On this episode of Angry Planet, former fighter pilot and current YouTuber Ward Carroll sits down to walk us through the ins and outs of Operation Prosperity Guardian. The conversation was recorded on February 20, 2023, and as Carroll predicted, the conflict remained remarkably static in the weeks that followed.That changed on March 5, when a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile struck the M/V True Confidence, killing three. Did the Houthis Cut Internet Cables in the Red Sea?The fighter pilots hunting Houthi drones over the Red SeaWard’s initial thoughts on the "ace" Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in

One of the persistent themes of Angry Planet has been that smaller countries in the spheres of influence of great powers have far greater control over their destinies than it would appear. If the recent fighting in the Middle East has taught us anything, it’s that local partners have plans of their own and it’s impossible for a patron to have complete control over what happens on the ground.On this episode of Angry Planet, Barbara Elias of Bowdoin College comes on to make the case for retiring the term ‘proxy war.’ It’s a wide ranging conversation that covers Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Vietnam. Tune in for a worthwhile discussion of geopolitical semantics and stick around for a wild story of million dollar goats in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Failed Goat Farm Is the Perfect American DisasterLocal Partners Are Not Proxies: The Case for Rethinking Proxy WarWhy Allies Rebel: Defiant Local Partners in Counterinsurgency WarsSubscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.Host

Retired Colonel John Spencer, who is a combat veteran who now teaches at West Point, joins Matthew and Jason for a second time. This time we're not talking about how to carry out urban warfare, but we're looking at how you fight morally under impossible circumstances. John recently wrote a piece for Newsweek (Jason's day job), making the controversial case that the Israelis are doing more than any other modern military to limit civilian casualties. You can see if he's persuasive for yourself.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oil makes the world go ‘round, for now. But rare earth minerals such as lithium are increasingly in demand and, as a result, the source of conflict. With us on the show today is Reuters journalist Ernest Scheyder. His new book The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives explores the new resource war that’s sucking in community activists, titans of industry, and global superpowers.Scheyder’s work at ReutersThe War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our LivesWe took questions from subscribers this week for the show. If you want in on the discussions and memes, and want to get an idea of what’s coming up click the link below.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informati

Joining your faithful Angry Planet crew this week are Rose Gottemoeller and Michael Ryan, both national security experts and both with a strong view that the war in Ukraine can still be won. And they'll even tell you how, if you listen to this week's show.You can read more of their thoughts in Foreign Policy: Ukraine Has a Pathway to VictoryAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vice News reporter Any Hayward spent the better part of the last year in Russia reporting on the domestic situation there. His work has appeared in various segments on Vice’s website, but he’s got a new documentary coming out on the anniversary of fullscale invasion called Warped by War.Hayward is here to walk us through what he saw, who he talked to, and the unique dangers of reporting in Putin’s Russia as a foreign journalist.The Vice YouTube channel is here. Warped by War will be available there on February 24.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the new year at Angry Planet.For the last 100 years, American defense policy has been aided by elaborate war games. SIGMA, the Cold War Game, and the Millenium Challenge are just some of the most famous. Sometimes these games are played with dice and boards, other times they’re purely electronic. Why do we do this, when did we start, and what does it all mean? More importantly, how do we make sure the board games don’t play us?Here to answer those questions is Director of the Hoover Wargaming and Crisis Simulation Initiative, Jacquelyn Schneider.What War Games Really RevealOne episode of The Crisis Game on YouTubeAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When President Dwight David Eisenhower left the stage as president of the United States in 1961, he warned of the military-industrial complex he was leaving behind. Sounds ominous, right? And that complex has had 60 years to harden in place since Eisenhower’s farewell address.But what is the military-industrial complex? Is it a war-mongering machine out to kill us all at a profit? Is it a bunch of old boys networking to sell $700 hammers to the Pentagon through no-bid deals? Was Eisenhower overstating a problem that only he could see?We spoke with Emma Salisbury, who just finished a Ph.D. thesis on the subject. As with virtually everything on Angry Planet, the truth was more complicated than you might think.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflic

Forty years ago, a made for TV movie aired on ABC that changed the world. It was called The Day After, and it depicted life in Kansas and Missouri after a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. More than 100 million people watched it when it aired. One of them was president Ronald Reagan.“I ran the tape of the movie ABC is running on the air Nov. 20. It’s called “The Day After.” It has Lawrence Kansas wiped out in a nuclear war with Russia. It is powerfully done—all $7 mil. worth. It’s very effective & left me greatly depressed,” he wrote in his diary after watching an early screening in 1983. “So far they haven’t sold any of the 25 spot ads scheduled & I can see why. Whether it will be of help to the ‘anti nukes’ or not, I cant say. My own reaction was one of our having to do all we can to have a deterrent & to see there is never a nuclear war.”This week on Angry Planet, we talk with David Craig about his new book Apocalypse Television: How the Day After Helped End the Cold War. More than just a

Here’s an episode for anyone who thinks art can’t change the world. Tom Clancy topped the best seller charts for decades. He’s so popular that even his death couldn’t stop sales, and the flow of new products. Books, TV shows, movies, and video games all bear his name. But Clancy wasn’t just a popular author—he was also a geopolitical player.On the show this week is writer Matt Farwell, creator of the The Hunt For Tom Clancy substack. Farwell’s unique blend of memoir, history, and critique casts a light on the weird world we live in now. A world that Clancy helped create.https://thehuntfortomclancy.substack.com/I would have liked to have seen MontanaOver The Top in TexasThe Teeth of the The TigerThe Sum of All FearsAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in c

The war between Israel and Hamas shows no sign of slowing. More and more (just as was predicted on this show) sympathy for the Jewish State is drying up around the world amid horrific losses among Palestinian civilians, especially children. College campuses are flooded with students and faculty calling for the end of Israel itself.In this episode, we look into the origins of the conflict, as well as its causes, with Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign relations. Everyone's done that, though. What makes this episode worth listening to—beyond our natural charms—is that we try to get a grip on the region and even what the end game could possibly look like.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport thi

This week on the show we talked with Canadian-Palestinian doctor Tarek Loubani about his work as an emergency room doctor in Gaza. Loubani helped pioneer the use of 3D printers in Gaza to produce low-cost medical equipment like stethoscopes. In 2018, he was shot in the legs by the IDF while delivering medical supplies.In this wide ranging conversation, he talks about the importance of low cost medical supplies, the 3D printing revolution, and what it’s like to work in a hospital under siege.The Glia ProjectMakers of 3D-Printed Medical Equipment Struggle to Save Lives In Gaza Under SiegeIsrael Bombs Emergency Medical Equipment 3D-Printing Facility in Gaza (Published 2021)Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subs

This episode was recorded on 10/10/23.Every war comes with a fog that makes it hard, if not impossible, to tell what’s going on while it’s being fought. The Israel-Hamas War is no different. What sets it apart is a digital information space rife AI generated images, perverse incentives, and outright propaganda. This week on Angry Planet we sat down with Emauel Maiberg and Joseph Cox of 404 Media come on the show to talk about covering the war’s and how the digital world has supercharged disinformation.‘Verified’ OSINT Accounts Are Destroying the Israel-Palestine Information EcosystemElon Musk Broke All the Tools Historians Need to Archive Tweets About Israel-Gaza WarNetanyahu’s Government Is Trying to Suspend the Freedom of InformationAI Images Detectors Are Being Used to Discredit the Real Horrors of WarAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://sup

This week’s episode is a long conversation with Joey Ayoub about Gaza, Palestine, and Israel.We cover a lot of ground and we’ve got a lot of show notes that accompany this episode.Show notes from Joey:Where the Palestinian Political Project Goes from Here“Divide and Rule”: How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for StatehoodJoey’s excellent podcast, The Fire These Times and its Patreon.Follow Joey on Mastodon.Show Notes on Robert MalleyThe Smear JobInside Iran’s influence operationHouse is investigating Biden’s former Iran envoyAn Iran mouthpiece’s ‘scoop’ draws Republican ireAngry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writing a blurb to describe a podcast episode isn't typically a difficult thing to do—between myself and Matthew, we've been writing for about 50 years—but as all things with Israel and the Palestinians, even writing a blurb is bound to offend someone. That's not our goal, but if you listen to the show, don't be surprised if there are a few things that you don't agree with, or even some that make you angry. It's in the name of the show, after all.This week we're talking about the Hamas attacks on Israel and their immediate aftermath. Joining us is Joseph Epstein. He's a fellow at the Endowment of Middle East Truth and a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, and an all around smart guy.This is only the first episode we're going to have on this developing war, not the last. If this POV isn't for you, we'll be looking at some others in the weeks to come.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angry

Paul Rieckhoff is a veteran with a lot to say about the state of the world. He came on Angry Planet to help us understand what happened when former President Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley crossed paths. What does it mean to swear allegiance to the Constitution above all, rather than to any particular commander-in-chief? What do you do if that person at the top wants you to do something unlawful, and who gets to judge what is unlawful?Fun stuff? Tough stuff—but Paul Rieckhoff is both. You can hear more from him at his fabulous Independent Americans podcast, where someone is finally talking a little sense about this country.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Once a year, leaders from around the world leave their capitals behind them for a trip to the Big City, New York. What could pull these powerful men—and far fewer women—away from affairs of state? Is it the revival of Spamalot on Broadway? No, the opening is still a few weeks away. Could it be the glittering bars, restaurants, and hotels? The easy availability of the ingredients for every vice known to humanity? Is it simply the lights on Broadway?Nope.It’s the one, the only United Nations General Assembly, which comes to town every September and plays to rave reviews—if you ask the delegates themselves. In reality, many of these leaders are addressing empty seats or facing interns sharpening their pencils for notes they may never take.So, why come?We’re going to tell you why with the help of Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, who knows the arcane, backroom secrets of this annual get together of the powerful and—if they’re stealing—the rich.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insight

Aram Shabanian stops by this week to talk to us about the strong men of the Caucasus.We start with a deep dive into what’s going on in Armenia and Azerbaijan right now with a focus on the 1990s. Shabanian calls Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyevl, the “Saddam Hussein of the Caucasus” and comes to grip with the realpolitik of the conflict.Then we turn our attention to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and discuss rumors of his failing health, mixed martial arts, and how a brutal warlord became an internet meme.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re taking another look at the climate here at Angry Planet. This week we’re joined by Peter Kalmus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Talking to a scientist about how hot the planet is getting can be jarring. Kalmus, like other experts in the field, brings a sense of doom to the subject that fits perfectly in the Angry Planet cannon.Kalmus talks about dining with oil executives and shares his thoughts on How to Blow Up a Pipeline. We cover a lot of ground in this episode and we’re happy to have our listeners along for the ride. Next week we’ll try to get back to something more traditionally depressing like Ramzan Kadyrov or Armenia and Azerbaijan.Check out Peter’s research here.Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribeSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.