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.

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

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

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

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).

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

Ryan Evans sat down with an august panel of gentlemen and a gentlelady to discuss issues related to contemporary nuclear strategy.  The guests: Elbridge Colby, Fellow, Center for a New American Security Thomas C. Moore, Defense Consultant and former Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under then-Ranking Member Dick Lugar Stanley Orman, former British Defence official, our very own nuclear Yoda, and author of An Uncivil Civil Servant. William Rosenau, Senior Analyst with CNA Strategic Studies' Center for Stability and Development Usha Sahay, Assistant Editor at War on the Rocks and Director of Digital Outreach at the Council for a Livable World They discussed everything from Iran to submarines to the recent nuclear cheating scandal.  Pour yourself a drink and have a listen.   Image: SCFiasco, Flickr, Creative Commons  

Max Fisher of the Washington Post and Ryan Evans sat down recently with Peter Singer and Allan Friedman of the Brookings Institution to discuss their new book, Cyberwar and Cybersecurity: What Everyone Needs to Know.  It was a fun, wide-ranging, drink-fueled discussion at the Jefferson Hotel's Cabinet Room. Have a listen!   Image: Niklas Morberg, Flickr, CC

JM Berger, Will McCants, and Clint Watts sat down with Ryan Evans at the Jefferson Hotel to talk about a range of subjects related to counter-terrorism. What could be more appropriate for Christmas? Have a listen!   Image: Department of Defense

This is the first of a two-part podcast set on the concept, and uses, of Strategic Intelligence.  In this episode, Tom and I lay out the actual, social function of Strategic Intelligence and look at it place in the long history of divination.  Strategic surprise, or intelligence failures, often are neither: a surprise or a `failure``, at least on the part of Intelligence Agencies.  What they often are is a breakdown in communications between the players involved; a breakdown that is often facilitated by a gross misunderstanding of what Strategic Intelligence can and cannot do. In the second segment, we sit down for a long discussion with Steven Strang, Director of Research and Innovation at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Steven is one of the top people in Canada when it comes to understanding how certain groups, mainly terrorists, communicate to their audiences and how this communication can, and should be interpreted by Intelligence agencies.  Steven has also trained many of the analysts working in the various Canadian agencies, and has presented world wide. For the full show notes for this podcast, check out brokenmirrors.ca Image: Jef Poskanzer Flickr

Last night, I sat down to talk nuclear strategy with William Rosenau of the Center for Naval Analysis, defense analyst Elbridge Colby, Robert Zarate of the Foreign Policy Initiative, and Stanley Orman – a former nuclear arms wizard who saved the U.S. and U.K. nuclear arsenals from corrosion in the 1960s.  It was a fascinating discussion during which I learned a great deal about nuclear arms, the Cold War, and giants of strategy like Thomas Schelling, Herman Kahn, and Albert Wohlstetter. Have a listen and read Stanley’s new book, An Uncivil Civil Servant.   Ryan Evans is the assistant director of the Center for the National Interest and the editor-in-chief of War on the Rocks.    Image:  Free Grunge Textures, Flickr

Editor's Note: We are pleased to feature this talk by Sir Lawrence Freedman, which took place this week at the British Embassy in Washington, DC.  Special thanks to the King's College London Alumni Office and the British Embassy.  The event was a part of Principal Rick Trainor's final tour of the United States before he ends his 10 year tenure at King's.    Sir Lawrence Freedman has been Professor of War Studies at King’s College London since 1982. He became head of the School of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s in 2000 and was appointed Vice-Principal in 2003.   Photo Credit: Cecil Stoughton, White House, 29 December 1962. President Kennedy is presented the flag of the 2506 Cuban Invasion Brigade. Miami, Florida, Orange Bowl Stadium.

"Nil terribile nisi ipse timor" In this episode, Tom Quiggin and I take a hard, realist look at the concept, and tactic, of terrorism.  In the first segment, we look at how the tactic of terrorism is structured, and how it can, and has, been employed.  At the strategic level, terrorist attacks are both rational and embedded within a narrative that supports and justifies them. In the second segment, we look at the operational processes of a terrorist campaign.  In particular, we look at how the responses to terrorist attacks can actually serve the purposes of the group using the tactics of terrorism. In the third segment, we talk with Mubin Shaik who helped to crack one of the major domestic terrorist plots in Canada (the Toronto 18), and is now involved in studying and working in the area of deradicalization. For the full show notes for this podcast, check out brokenmirrors.ca. Marc Tyrrell is an anthropologist teaching at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). He is a Senior Research Fellow with the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies.

In this podcast, we take a look at a rarely discussed, structural vulnerability in advanced societies: the payments and settlements system. We first put this system in the historical context of economic warfare, then look at some potential forms of attacks, followed by a discussion with Michelle Couturier about possible local defensive measures. The vulnerability of the advanced economies to economic warfare attacks is increasing as we use primarily fiat currencies, the largest part of which exist in digital formats only with little to no reserves. At the same time, we have allowed the functioning of our local, national and international economies to migrate over at a complex network of computer systems of dubious heritage and stability. The central nervous system of our economy is now the international payments and settlements which is jointly run by a series of Central Banks and Financial Institutes. We focus the discussion on a simple proposition: what bankers are allowing to happen (consciously or not) at Central Banks and Financial Institutions (FIs) is far more fearsome than what terrorists have planned in the past. A failure of their jointly operated payments and settlements system would do more systemic damage to the advanced economies than any terrorist attack has done to date. This failure could result from an exterior attack by a state or group, an insider threat, or from technical failures in an overly complex system. For the full show notes for this podcast, and accompanying papers, check out brokenmirrors.ca.   Photo Credit: Mike Gifford, Flickr.  

Last night, some of  Washington's finest national security minds met me at the cabinet room in the Jefferson Hotel bar to talk shop.  Elbridge Colby, William Rosenau, and Afshon Ostovar - all of the Center for Naval Analyses - were joined by surprise guests ("surprise" because they didn't know they were meeting me for a podcast) Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation and Bill Braniff, the executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). We talked about President Obama's and President Rouhani's speeches at the United Nations, whether or not Rouhani's election means there is a real opening on the Iranian nuclear program, the Syrian civil war, why the attack in Nairobi has gotten so much more press than the church attack in Pakistan, and what the Elizabeth O'Bagy PhD scandal says about the think tank sector's ability to "self-police." Photo Credit: B Rosen, Flickr

Editor's Note:  War on the Rocks is proud to start featuring podcasts from its Canadian affiliate, Broken Mirrors. In this inaugural episode of Broken Mirrors, Marc Tyrrell and Tom Quiggin (me) introduce the podcast's foundations and discuss Canada/US relations. They then sit down with Ian MacLeod of the Ottawa Citizen and engage in a freewheeling discussion on intelligence and national security in terms of changes in journalism, the effects of technology, and the Snowden Affair (just because everyone else is focus only on Syria, it doesn't mean Canada has to be!). Why 'Broken Mirrors'? The number one problem with intelligence agencies and think tanks is 'mirror imaging.' We want to 'break those mirrors' - a good WOTR tradition - by taking a unique Canadian perspective on the issues. What is a 'Canadian perspective'?  Three values are at the core of our Canadians viewpoint: 'civil discourse' (including the concept of a 'loyal opposition'), bridging the gap between theory and practice, and an abandonment of rhetoric. Each monthly Broken Mirrors podcast on War On The Rocks will be split into three segments: strategic, operational, and tactical/current. In the first segment on this episode, Marc and Tom talk about what Canadians bring to the debate. In the second segment, we sit with Ian MacLeod who has 30 year’s experience as a reporter in the intelligence, national security, military and terrorism fields. The discussion occurs over several glasses of wine. In the third segment, Tom’s risk assessment looks at what damage has occurred as a result of the Snowden revelations. As philosophical realists (Marc is also a self-proclaimed 'Baconian Empiricist'), we want this series to apply the best technical practices from the broadcast community. We are blessed by our genius in-house producer Tim Reilly, who also has a background in national security. By using high end production values – ‘podcast best practices-  we aim to bring into the WORT community those that tend not to look at national security issues in detail. The idea of a reasoned and detailed discussion of particular issues is, as Ian notes, rapidly disappearing from the print world. We believe that our podcasts will deal both with the most important points as well as the in-depth issues giving the listener the 'fly-on-the-wall' perspective that is the hallmark of War On The Rocks podcasts.  Many people don't want to listen to a two hour podcast, so we are releasing the edited version (30 to 45 minutes) through War On The Rocks.  The extended material can be found on our site at brokenmirrors.ca. So, that's the story behind the 'Broken Mirrors' podcasts. Sit back, grab a drink, and enjoy

Last night, Eli Lake of the Daily Beast and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a WOTR contributor, joined Senior Editor Mark Stout and me at the Jefferson Hotel, where we discussed some of the more pressing issues in foreign and security policy over drinks in one of their luxurious Cabinet Rooms: The impending attack on Syria and what this says about President Obama's foreign policy. Is there an Obama doctrine? Does the government keep too many secrets? Why? Since we had a journalist and a former CIA analyst at the table, this was a fun one. Good times were had by all. Have a listen.

On Friday, I sat down for a great talk over drinks with Raffaello Pantucci, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, and Robin Simcox, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.  I got to hear their insights into a number of emerging and evolving challenges in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, and more.  Once again, we were at the fantastic American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London.  Enjoy!     Photo Credit: Grant Williamson

Last Thursday I invited Emile Simpson and Kathleen McInnis to join me at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London to talk about Emile's book, "War from the Ground Up: Twenty-First Century Combat as Politics." After navigating the impressive drinks menu (priorities), we had a great discussion about Afghanistan, COIN, and the changing face of warfare. Have a listen!   Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

This is Part Two of my session with Lieutenant Colonel Brian A. Payne and David Kasten of the U.S. Army Irregular Warfare Center (AIWC) at the Jefferson Hotel bar here in Washington, DC.   Did you listen to Part One?  If not, you missed out on bands in Haiti, coffee in Bosnia, training for human based skills, and lessons learned in war and over BBQ. In Part Two, Brian, David, and I talk 9/11 and everything (war) that came after.  Tune in for your counter-insurgency fix. Does COIN have a future in the Army? Tune in. Nothing Brian and David say here represents the opinions of the AIWC, the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense or anyone else.       Photo Credit: Cameron Russel

I recently sat down with Lieutenant Colonel Brian A. Payne and David Kasten of the U.S. Army Irregular Warfare Center (AIWC) at the Jefferson Hotel bar here in Washington, DC.  This is part one of that conversation.  Brian is the Director of AWIC and David is its Chief of Interagency Coordination. Our guests show that irregular warfare was a dominant feature of American wars long before 9/11. It was a really fascinating conversation full of thoughtful analysis and war stories - over drinks of course. We hear everything from Brian's tactical response to a village band in Haiti to David not joining the French Foreign Legion and becoming a sniper instead. Listen! Needless to say, none of the views expressed by Brian and David represent the opinions of the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, or any part of the U.S. government.

The other day, I sat down with War on the Rocks contributors Bill Rosenau, Will McCants, and Afshon Ostovar - all of the Strategic Studies Center at the Center for Naval Analyses - for a conversation that ranged widely from Syria to Snowden to the think tank industry. We were hosted by the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, DC. Listen here: