The Net Assessment Crew Sits Down with Ryan

We recently sat down with the gang at the Center for a New American Security to discuss offset strategies. As you can see from the photo, we had all the important props one would need to plan how the United States will maintain its military technological superiority, including Star Wars action figures, a drone from Radio Shack, a model drone, a plastic shotgun, a fake robot, and - of course - a bottle of bourbon. We had a lot of fun recording this and we hope you have fun listening to it. Read more about our Beyond Offset series here.

23 Dec 201450min

Editor's note: Recently, the Clements Center of the University of Texas at Austin and the King's College London War Studies Department held an important conference on the "special relationship" between the United Kingdom and the United States in the larger context of grand strategy. Many WOTR friends and contributors were involved, including John Bew, MLR Smith, Kori Schake, Tim Hoyt, Ryan Evans, and --- of course --- Lawrence Freedman, who gave the final keynote lecture on a subject near and dear to WOTR readers: strategy. Read Freedman's Strategy: A History if you haven't already. And if you have, read it again! Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King's College London since 1982. His most recent book is Strategy: A History (OUP, 2013). He is a Contributing Editor at War on the Rocks.

4 Dec 201430min

Admiral Chris Parry (ret.) of the Royal United Services Institute, Bryan McGrath of Hudson's Center for American Seapower, and Evan Montgomery of CSBA joined Ryan Evans for a wide-ranging conversation on naval strategy, a rising China, territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, NATO's ability to project power in the Baltic and Black Seas, and much more. Have a listen and read Admiral Parry's new book, Super Highway: Sea Power in the 21st Century. Image: U.S. Navy

21 Okt 201458min

We sat down to talk Asian security at the Jefferson Hotel's Quill Bar. Our guests included: Dean Cheng, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Robert Haddick, an independent consultant for special operations command and author of Fire on the Water: China, America, and the Future of the Pacific (Naval Institute Press, 2014). TX Hammes, who needs no introduction. With Ryan Evans moderating, the participants buzzed through a number of contentious issues related to Asian security including the ongoing protests in Taiwan, North Korea, tensions between South Korea and Japan, and whether or not the U.S. military is appropriately preparing itself for a potential conflict with China. Have a listen! Photo credit: Official U.S. Navy Imagery

8 Okt 201447min

Some of the sharpest minds on the Middle East in town sat down over drinks to tackle some of the most troublesome problems in the world's most troublesome region. Have a listen! Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is the author of The Rise of Turkey. Ryan Evans is the editor-in-chief of War on the Rocks. Douglas A. Ollivant is a Senior National Security Fellow with the New America Foundation and the Senior Vice President of Mantid International, LLC. Afshon Ostovar is a senior analyst at the CNA Corporation. Joshua W. Walker is a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, Image: Flickr, Argenberg, CC

19 Sep 201454min

Yesterday, Ryan Evans sat down with Sean Kay over a couple beers at the Jefferson Hotel's wonderful Quill Bar to discuss America's foreign policy trajectory and Sean's new book, America's Search for Security: The Triumph of Idealism and the Return of Realism. This wide-ranging conversation covered every topic a foreign policy wonk could dream of: Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, the Cold War, NATO, Russia, President Obama, Ukraine, the Asia Pivot, the Middle East, and more. Sean has insightful points to offer on all of these topics and more based on his perspective as a scholar of foreign relations and still recovering government adviser. Image: White House

11 Sep 201429min

What about counterinsurgency? At a time when all eyes are focused on the potential outbreak of a "conventional" war in Ukraine, Doug Ollivant, David Ucko and Ryan Evans sat down to consider counterinsurgency over fine bourbon (Noah's Mill, highly recommended). We recorded this podcast to mark the publication of an important book, The New Counter-Insurgency Era in Critical Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2104), edited by David Martin Jones, Celeste Ward Gventer, MLR Smith - who were kind enough to invite Doug and Ryan to Austin, Texas a couple years ago for a wide-ranging discussion aimed at re-assessing counterinsurgency. This workshop attracted the leading lights of the counterinsurgency debate alongside some fresh voices who have conducted some exciting original research. This book is the product of that workshop and it is the perfect text for any class on insurgency, counterinsurgency, and irregular warfare. Read it! And listen to the podcast! Other works referenced in this podcast include: Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (Princeton University Press, 2013). Doug Ollivant, Countering the New Orthodoxy: Reinterpreting Counterinsurgency in Iraq (New America Foundation, 2011). David Ucko and Robert Egnell, Counterinsurgency in Crisis: Britain and the Challenges of Modern Warfare (Columbia University Press, 2013). David Ucko, The New Counterinsurgency Era (Georgetown University Press, 2009). David Ucko, "Counterinsurgency in El Salvador: The Lessons and Limits of the Indirect Approach," Small Wars and Insurgencies,24:4 (2014).

31 Mars 201454min

This is the second of a two-part podcast set on the concept, and uses, of Strategic Intelligence. In this episode, Marc and Tom discuss how intelligence functions within democratic societies in an effort to look at how a theory of intelligence can emerge. Following up on the first part of the podcast, we look at what such a theory needs to answer before it can actually operate in a democracy. In the second segment, we sit down for a long discussion with BG (Ret'd) Dr James S. Cox, Vice-President, Academic Affairs with the Canadian Military Intelligence Association. After a 35 year career in the Canadian military dealing with Intelligence in a variety of settings, Jim completed a PhD looking at developing a theory of Intelligence that is truly interdisciplinary in nature. In this wide ranging discussion, Jim, Marc and Tom tease out how such a theory can be built from the ground up, pragmatic operations of intelligence. For the full show notes for this podcast, check out brokenmirrors.ca Image: Jo Naylor, CC

28 Mars 20141h 41min