Show Notes
Drones dominate the headlines, but protracted warfare still comes down to people. Gil Barndollar joins host Steve Trynosky to discuss why Western militaries cannot afford to ignore the human demands of mobilization and manpower.
More from A Better Peace: The War Room Podcast
Forty years ago, the Goldwater-Nichols Act reshaped how the U.S. military operates. Passed in 1986 following coordination breakdowns in operations like Vietnam and the Iranian hostage rescue, the law forced the branches to overcome fierce rivalries and operate as a joint team.
Battles are won in the mind before shots are fired. Strategist Mike "Quatto" Posey joins host Tom Spahr joins to break down military deception, from WWII ghost armies to modern decoys, and how psychology drives outcomes on and off the battlefield.
Marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, host Jadwiga Biskupska sits down with deRaismes Combes to examine how the attacks reshaped American security, daily life, and the perception of threats, asking whether post-9/11 choices have truly made us safer.
How do "sunk costs" influence wartime decisions? JP Clark interviews Brian Groves on his book, "When Presidents Fight the Last War."
Twelve years ago last week, on May 2, 2011, the U.S. military conducted a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan that killed Usama bin Laden. Once the mission was accomplished, the SEAL team conducted sensitive site exploitation and gathered up and returned with all of the materials and equipment they discovered in the compound. Nelly Lahoud and her team sorted through some 97,000 files and 6,000 pages of declassified documents, all in Arabic, to discover the truth about bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. She's in the studio to discuss her book, "The Bin Laden Papers: How the Abbottabad Raid Revealed the Truth about Al-Qaeda, Its Leader and His Family" with host John Nagl. The information gleaned from this incredible undertaking paints a picture of a man and a network that, after the 9/11 attack, were confined, restrained and not very successful.