Show Notes
OPEN ECHOES Episode #11 An interview with Dr. Fotios Moustakis — Dr. Fotios Moustakis is an accomplished Associate Professor in Strategic and Security Studies with over two decades of experience. He specializes in designing and delivering courses on international and maritime security, strategy, and transnational security threats, notably terrorism. During his five-year tenure as a Visiting Professor in Terrorism at the NATO School in Oberammergau, he contributed significantly to the field. Additionally, Dr. Moustakis served as a Senior Associate Member at St Antony's College, Oxford University. In 2009, he established the pioneering blended learning International MA program in Applied Strategy and International Security, tailored for command-level staff at the Hellenic National Defence College, equivalent to the Royal College of Defence Studies. Dr. Moustakis has supervised over two hundred MA dissertations and mentored numerous Doctoral students on strategic and security matters. He is a prolific author with three monographs and multiple publications in esteemed refereed and policy practitioner journals, making substantial contributions to academia. As the Director of the Dartmouth Centre for Sea Power and Strategy, he has built strong professional and educational networks in maritime security and strategy, fostering collaborations with influential institutions and organizations worldwide. Dr. Moustakis has played a pivotal role in organizing several national-level conferences on critical topics, contributing significantly to security education and knowledge. — This OPEN Echoes interview explores: - Influence of Thucydides' "The History of the Peloponnesian War" on understanding leadership and strategy. - Exploration of leadership in war, nature of power, strategic thinking, and military technologies. - The crucial role of effective military leadership in managing security challenges like terrorism and the role of disruptive technologies on modern warfare. - Whether leaders are born or can be developed. - Involving feedback from military leaders and recognizing different viewpoints. - A timeline for change influenced by factors like geopolitics and technology advances. - The evolving nature of military leadership in a rapidly changing world. — Welcome to OPEN Echoes. OPEN stands for “Other Perspectives Exchange Network.” Our mission is to explore diverse, insightful, and sometimes disruptive viewpoints on matters crucial to NATO. OPEN Echoes reflects the original thoughts, analyses, and viewpoints shared by academics, thought leaders and non-military experts — spreading ideas, perspectives, and insights across the globe. It’s our hope that the insights shared in these episodes will help to impact and influence thinking and conversations long after you take off your headphones. OPEN Echoes alternates episodes between compelling interviews with non-NATO subject matter experts, and readings from OPEN's wide range of publications. In this episode, we interview Dr. Fotios Moustakis. Dr. Moustakis article, “Future Military Leadership" is available on the OPEN Publications website here. The lightly-edited transcript of this episode’s interview with Dr. Moustakis follows: Dave Summers: Fotios, welcome to the Open Echoes Podcast program. So nice to meet you. Dr. Fotios Moustakis: Thank you very much for the invitation. Dave: To get started. I'm going to ask you to please just do a short introduction, introduce yourself to our audience. And let them know who you are and what path you took to get to where you are right now. Dr. Moustakis: Well, first of all, I'm an associate professor in Strategic Studies at the University of Plymouth in the UK, and also at the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, which is part of the British Ministry of Defense. Actually, I've been in the military education and the university sector, but mainly the military education for over 20 years now because my job actually at 2002, some time a
More from OPEN Echoes
OPEN ECHOES Episode #24 An interview with Dr. Olivier Schmitt __ Dr. Olivier Schmitt is a professor of political science at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where he focuses on security policy, military cooperation, arms control, and the evolving nature of warfare. He previously served as director of research and studies at the French Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN) and holds a Ph.D. from the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. __ This interview explores the author's insights on alliance dynamics, focusing on: - A broader definition of alliances, including both formal treaties and informal alignments, to better reflect today’s complex security partnerships. - Three key motivations behind alliance behavior: balancing (uniting against a threat), bandwagoning (aligning with a dominant power), and tethering (maintaining adversarial relationships within an alliance to prevent open conflict). - The role of institutional adaptability in ensuring the credibility of alliances. - The challenges posed by economic ties with adversarial powers, which complicate alliance politics. - The conclusion that NATO is not merely a military alliance but also a community of democratic values—essential for its long-term stability, cohesion, and legitimacy in the 21st century. Welcome to OPEN Echoes. OPEN stands for “Other Perspectives Exchange Network.” Our mission is to explore diverse, insightful, and sometimes disruptive viewpoints on matters crucial to NATO. OPEN Echoes reflects the original thoughts, analyses, and viewpoints shared by academics, thought leaders and non-military experts — spreading ideas, perspectives, and insights across the globe. - It’s our hope that the insights shared in these episodes will help to impact and influence thinking and conversations long after you take off your headphones. OPEN Echoes alternates episodes between compelling interviews with non-NATO subject matter experts, and readings from OPEN's wide range of publications. In this episode, we interview Dr. Olivier Schmitt. Dr. Schmitt’s article, “The Emergence of Military Alliances in the 21 st Century"; is available on the OPEN Publications website here.
OPEN ECHOES Episode #23 OPEN Echoes reflects the original thoughts, analyses, and viewpoints shared by academics, thought leaders and non-military experts — spreading ideas, perspectives, and insights across the globe. It’s our hope that the insights shared in these episodes will help to impact and influence thinking and conversations long after you take off your headphones. OPEN Echoes alternates episodes between compelling interviews with non-NATO subject matter experts, and readings from OPEN's wide range of publications. In this episode, we present an audio recording of the OPEN Publication, "Interoperability and Standardization in the Exponential Age” by Dr Michael Gerz. The reading length is approximately 49 minutes. Listeners should note that this audio reading does not include the references, images or diagrams included in the original publication. References, images and diagrams can be found in the original publication, which can be accessed and downloaded at https://issuu.com/spp_plp/docs/openpu_2?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ
OPEN ECHOES Episode #22