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Modern War Institute at West Point

The Modern War Institute Podcast, produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974, is the flagship podcast of the Modern War Institute at West Point. It features discussions with guests including senior military leaders, scholars, and others on the most important issues related to modern military conflict.

Modern War Institute

How did George Washington overcome virtually every material disadvantage to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War? How did Ulysses S. Grant turn the tides of the Civil War in the Union’s favor in the crucial year of 1864? How did Dwight Eisenhower manage the overwhelming personal burden of leading the Allied invasion of Europe? The answers to these questions share remarkable continuities, and together they offer a picture into the requirements of successful supreme command at war—and offer lessons that will shape the outcomes of America’s future wars. To explore them, John Amble is joined on this episode by retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt Cavanaugh, author of the book Who Wins Wars: Lessons in Leadership, Power, and Supreme Command from Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Chapters
 • (00:00:04) - What Makes Strategic Leadership So Successful
 • (00:00:45) - Discussion about Supreme Command
 • (00:02:05) - Matt Wilkie on Supreme Command
 • (00:02:36) - From Third Base to Home
 • (00:04:50) - Defending the Supreme Commander
 • (00:09:00) - The Strategic Decisions of Great Generals
 • (00:19:55) - George Washington and Military Decisions
 • (00:30:31) - Empathy in the Supreme Command
 • (00:42:36) - In the Army: The Need for Mentorship
 • (00:45:40) - Supreme Command: AI Never Replacing Human Judgment
 • (00:48:24) - What Right Looks Like in 4 Words
 • (00:51:22) - Who Wins Wars: The History Podcast

How Commanders Win Wars

NATO just wrapped up its 2026 summit in Ankara, Turkey. Over two days of meetings and other events, the leaders of the alliance's thirty-two member states discussed a range of issues and challenges facing the alliance. But what did we actually learn from the summit? In a period that has been marked by intra-alliance friction, were there signs of closing fissures or do divisions remain? And were there indicators of how much progress members have made toward meeting their defense spending commitments? More importantly, how much has boosted spending translated into improvements in defense capabilities? To explore those questions and more, John Amble is joined on this episode by Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

NATO's Ankara Summit

For years of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, US Army forces, along with their joint and coalition counterparts, benefits from a logistics enterprise that ensured every supply need was met. That enterprise—extending from installations at home, through sea and air lines, and all the way to small units in contact—operated largely without disruption by enemy forces. A major war with a peer adversary, however, will present a very different scenario, in which logistics activities will be contested across the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war. To discuss the challenges that will entail and explore what can be done now to improve the resilience and reliability of US and allied logistics systems, John Amble is joined on this episode by Ron Ti. A retired Australian Army officer with extensive practical experience, he earned a PhD researching combat logistics on the modern battlefield and is the author of a forthcoming book on the subject.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Logistics, Landpower, and Large-Scale Combat

In 1973, the US military took an enormously consequential step when it adopted an all-volunteer force model. That decision has produced the most professional, capable joint force in history. But it hasn’t come without costs—from the large budgets required to maintain it to a shrinking recruitment base that has serious implications for civil-military relations. So what does the all-volunteer force’s future look like? How much have the strategic, economic, and social conditions that drove the decision to adopt the model changed over the past fifty years? Would it hold up in a modern, large-scale war? And if strategic realities required it, how would a return to some form of conscription work? John Amble is joined on this episode by Jaron Wharton and Keith Carter, coeditors of Bend But Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force, to explore those questions and more.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

The Future of the All-Volunteer Force

Shortly after taking power in Moscow, Vladimir Putin began consolidating his authority over the Russian intelligence services that had long been deeply embedded in Russian and Soviet politics and a pervasive influence in society. The degree to which he succeeded was striking, ultimately transforming them into organizational assets that remained effective at what they did but were entirely loyal to him. This episode features a discussion with former CIA senior operations officer Sean Wiswesser. The author of Tradecraft, Tactics, and Dirty Tricks: Russian Intelligence and Putin’s Secret War, he shares his insights on Russian intelligence services’ role in pursuing Moscow’s objectives around the world—from the war in Ukraine to influence operations in Africa and the Middle East to information campaigns intended to subvert Western democracies.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Putin’s Intelligence Services

For more than a week, the United States and Israel have struck a wide range of targets in Iran with air and missile strikes. Iran’s response has included missile and drone attacks against targets in neighboring states in the Middle East—both US military and diplomatic facilities and public sites including Dubai’s airport. What weapons, on both sides of the conflict, have defined the conflict so far? To explore that question, John Amble is joined on this special bonus episode by Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

The Weapons Defining the Iran Conflict

What were the strategic calculations that drove the United States and Israel to launch a military operation aimed at a wide range of targets in Iran? And are the fundamental objectives of the two partners fully aligned?

Inside Iran, as the regime's resilience and the military's capability are under more pressure than they have been in decades, how are institutions responding? What drove the decision to respond with drone and missile strikes throughout the region?

How are the Gulf states positioning themselves as they have defended against Russian attacks? What role has the Gulf Cooperating Council played? What outcomes might emerge from the conflict and how are Iran's neighbors working to influence those outcomes?

These questions offer insights into the strategic dimension of the ongoing US-Israeli operation against Iran. To examine them, John Amble is joined on this episode by three guests who share their insights on the strategic perspectives of the United States, Israel, Iran, and the Gulf states.

Jonathan Panikoff is the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council and formerly served as the deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East at the National Intelligence Council. Sydney Laite is a former senior intelligence analyst who spent years focused on Iranian strategic decision-making. And Rory Miller is a professor of international politics at Georgetown University in Qatar, where he is the director of the Small States Research Program.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

The Iran Conflict's Strategic Dimension

The United States has a new National Defense Strategy. Released about every four years, the document offers a window into the way senior defense officials view the global threat environment and identify US defense objectives. But how will the new strategy be interpreted by allies and partners? What about adversaries and competitors? And does formally delineating US priorities offer a degree of predictability on a contemporary strategic landscape characterized by growing instability and a fraying world order?

To examine the strategy, John Amble is joined on this episode by Frank Hoffman, Mark Cancian, and Pat Sullivan.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Articles referenced during the episode:

"The 2026 National Defense Strategy by the Numbers: Radical Changes, Moderate Changes, and Some Continuities" (CSIS)

"Key Takeaways from the New National Defense Strategy" (WOTR)

What to Make of the New National Defense Strategy

Examined exclusively as a military operation, the US raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was a stunning success. In the course of just a few hours, the force package launched, accomplished its objective, and returned to base. But before that could happen, planning and rehearsals that likely took place for months set the stage for the mission’s brief execution. To share their perspectives on the operation, John Amble is joined on this episode by Liam Collins, a retired US Army colonel who spent much of his career in special operations units, and Jimmy Blackmon, also a retired colonel and a former helicopter pilot. Both guests have taken part in numerous missions targeting key combatant leaders in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and they share their experiences and their insights on the recent operation in Venezuela.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Analyzing Operation Absolute Resolve

Both training and education have always been key elements of the US Army’s readiness. But as new battlefield challenges arise and new technologies emerge, the character of warfare is changing—and it’s changing faster than ever. Keeping up with those changes—and keeping ahead of adversaries we might fight—means that we have to get training and education right. The Army’s success in tomorrow’s wars will hinge on what we do in classrooms and on training grounds today. To explore that challenge, John Amble is joined by a guest who brings unique perspectives on both education and training to the discussion. Colonel Ethan Diven is the provost of Army University and deputy commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College, and before taking those roles he served as the commander of the operations group at the National Training Center.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Training, Education, and the Modern Battlefield

This episode of the MWI Podcast features a conversation with Matt Larsen, known in many corners of the Army as the father of the modern combatives. He explains why he thinks combatives training is so important, but he also talks a lot about the notion of a warrior ethos—what it is and why, as he argues, it’s something that needs to exist throughout the entire Army, not just in infantry or other combat arms units.

Ep. 82 – Creating Warriors, with Matt Larsen

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