My abiding memory of colonels is that they really are the pivot between the engine room and the ultimate decision makers particularly, for example, in a corps headquarters. A BETTER PEACE welcomes General Timothy Radford of the British Army to the studio to discuss his perspectives on strategic leadership, vision and effect. Radford was in […]
Category Archives: Special Series
A NEW WASHINGTON NAVAL CONFERENCE FOR A POST-COVID WORLD?
International leaders might do well to look to an idea from a century ago, when the world was also trying to deal with the global effects of a pandemic and an age of great power competition. Updated as of 0830/31 Mar 2020 In the middle of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone’s attention is focused squarely on public […]
WHAT GOOD IS GRAND STRATEGY? (A WHITEBOARD)
A grand strategy defines a country’s interests, the threats to those interests and the policies as well as the military forces to defend them. For this Whiteboard we reached out again to several scholars at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. We sent them the following prompt: What good is grand […]
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ODNI: AN INTERVIEW WITH JAMES CLAPPER
The President, and all policy makers should have the unvarnished truth as best as the intelligence community can serve it up. A BETTER PEACE welcomes former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper to discuss the role of the ODNI and the current state of the position. Clapper joins guest host Genevieve Lester, Chair of […]
LESSONS FROM 1918: GET A FLU SHOT, WASH YOUR HANDS
What we do know is that all of the movement of people and animals made this virus transmit much faster around the world than it would have otherwise. And you can directly associate it with the effects of the war. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Michael Neiberg to examine the misnamed Spanish Flu of 1918. Neiberg […]
MOBILIZATION TO DEMOBILIZATION: THE LIFE OF THE MINUTEMAN (DUSTY SHELVES)
He was a competent but not flamboyant officer, commanding at an echelon that attracted little public attention during and after the war. In recent years there has been much discussion about the Army’s refocusing on largescale combat operations, command at the division echelon, and the transformation of the National Guard from a strategic to an […]
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 AT 70: WHAT INTEGRATION MEANS FOR TODAY’S MILITARY
As we wind down Black History Month the Editorial Team thought it most appropriate to re-release this and one other podcast on Executive Order 9981. Originally released in July 2018, the 70th anniversary was a great reminder to examine the official order to desegregate the military and consider how far we’ve come and what still […]
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9981 AT 70: DESEGREGATING THE ARMED FORCES
As we wind down Black History Month the Editorial Team thought it most appropriate to re-release this and one other podcast on Executive Order 9981. Originally released in July 2018, the 70th anniversary was a great reminder to examine the official order to desegregate the military and consider how far we’ve come and what still […]
LIBERATION FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE LIBERATED (ON WRITING)
If you go into reading history with an open mind what you’re looking for is to be surprised; you’re looking for things that tell you something you didn’t know. The liberation of an oppressed people is indeed a noble venture. But as the U.S. learned in Iraq, it’s a complicated relationship between the liberated and […]
THE UNITED NATIONS’ GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: (A WHITEBOARD)
26 COUNTRIES SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ON 1 JANUARY 1942 THAT SUBSCRIBED TO THE PRINCIPLES OF THE 1941 US-UK ATLANTIC CHARTER. For this Whiteboard we reached out again to several scholars with the following prompt: What has been the United Nations’ greatest accomplishment since its founding? Readers are invited to make their own […]
“TECHNOCRATS AND OPERATIONAL EXPERTS” (DUSTY SHELVES)
Murray…highlights the German military’s failure as a whole to understand how the Industrial Revolution had transformed warfighting. Written histories, it is said, speak to each generation differently, enabling readers to interpret them within the framework of their own experiences. As such, a rereading of Williamson Murray’s Luftwaffe—first published in 1985—is especially timely. Although offering more […]
OBSERVATIONS FROM NATO’S NORTHERN FRONT (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)
What I think is important is to do your current job as good as you can. Don’t be too focused on the next steps because then you are not focused on your current job. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Major General Torgeir Gråtrud, commander of the Norwegian Special Operations Command, to the studio to discuss his perspectives […]
LOOKING TO THE PAST TO CHANGE THE FUTURE
Back in the 1930s, Air Force officers who were assigned instructor duty at the Air Corps Tactical School…would wear these little…pledge pins on their uniforms. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Dr. John Terino, Chair of the Department of Airpower at the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College (ACSC.) John joins our Editor-In-Chief, Jacqueline Whitt to […]
STRATEGY WHILE SHAVING WITH A BLOWTORCH (DUSTY SHELVES)
[King’s] autobiography is superb reading for those interested in leadership, and it contains two specific documents that encapsulate King’s leadership and remain testaments for senior military leaders today. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, tensions between the United States and the Axis Powers spiked, presenting the U.S. Navy with daunting challenges, including the prospect of […]
REMEMBERING THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
In September 1944 defeat looked not only likely but imminent for the German Army. And It was at that point that Adolf Hitler told his generals that he was going to launch a winter offensive that would turn the war around. A BETTER PEACE welcomes David Hogan, Director of Histories at the U.S. Army Center of […]
PARIS 1919: A CONVERSATION WITH MARGARET MACMILLAN (ON WRITING)
And somebody hadn’t written a book on the whole [conference]…and so I thought well maybe I’ll try and then I thought that’s crazy. Who am I to try this massive subject. A BETTER PEACE welcomes award winning and internationally renowned author Margaret MacMillan. Perhaps best known for her study and writings of the 1919 […]
LEADERSHIP ROLE MODELS IN FICTION: (A WHITEBOARD)
Before one can achieve anything (or even aspire to do so), one must find the inner resources needed to surmount challenges and acquire agency. For this Whiteboard we reached out again to several scholars with the following prompt: Describe a positive or negative leadership role model from a character in fantasy literature, science fiction, or […]
A QUESTION OF PROFESSIONALISM (DUSTY SHELVES)
For today and tomorrow, I think it can remind us of one tool that’s been tried for some bootstrap professional development, and also make us think about how all officers need to balance deep domain knowledge and broader military knowledge. In 1921, Surgeon General Merritte Ireland needed to reorient his doctors. He felt they were […]
THE CHALLENGES OF WRITING BIOGRAPHIES (ON WRITING)
I’m using Kennedy’s life to tell the story of America’s rise, first to great power status and then superpower status. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning author Fredrik Logevall to discuss his newest project, a two-volume biography of John F. Kennedy. Logevall joins Michael Neiberg in the studio as they discuss the complexity of […]
BOOK LOVERS NEED APPLY: A DUSTY SHELVES PODCAST
One of the things we’re trying to do is encourage people…to start talking about older books, older readings, older things that are lost or never really well known that really should have been. A BETTER PEACE welcomes WAR ROOM editors Tom Bruscino and Jon Klug to explain the drive and desire behind the DUSTY SHELVES […]