Decoding Geopolitics Podcast

➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics This is a conversation with Mark Galeotti - an honorary professor at UCL, a senior associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute, director of Mayak Intelligence and one of the most renowned experts on Russia and Russian politics. We talked about the attacks in Moscow - whether he thought it could have been a false flag, or whether the Russian propaganda will succeed in shifting blame to Ukraine. And about the broader picture - when might the war in Ukraine end and how, whether Russia is weaker than it looks and much more. Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast on Patreon, and now enjoy the conversation.

➡️ PATREON:  https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Support this podcast on Patreon, help me make more episodes and get bonus content, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests. Dr Ulrike Franke is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations who's focusing on German Security, Foreign and Defense policy and has a deep insight into the inner workings of German political and security institutions. We talked about how Germany has changed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, why it struggles so much to rebuild its military, why it still refuses to provide Taurus missiles to Ukraine, whether the German public has abandoned its pacifism or whether Germany should get a nuclear bomb. Thank you to everyone who's supporting this podcast on Patreon and now enjoy the conversation. Follow Dr. Franke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RikeFranke

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics This is a conversation with Alex Vatanka - a Tehran-born expert on Iranian domestic and foreign policy and a director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute. In this conversation we talk about Iran's geopolitical strategy - what is it trying to achieve, what are its motivations and goals but also about whether it would benefit from a large regional war, to what extent it controls Hamas, how stable is the Iranian regime and much much more. Thank you so much to everyone for supporting this podcast. And now enjoy the conversation.

➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Support this podcast on Patreon, help me make more episodes and get bonus content, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests. This is a conversation with General Mick Ryan. Mick is a former high commanding officer in the Australian Army and today works mostly on the topic of the future of war. He wrote two excellent books - War Transformed in which he explains how technology will shape future conflicts and White Sun War - a fictional account of war over Taiwan in which he brings these ideas to life and shows how devastating a superpower conflict would look like. In this interview we talk about all of that and much more. Enjoy the conversation.

➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Support this podcast on Patreon, help me make more episodes and get bonus content, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests. This is a conversation with Szabolc Panyi, a leading Hungarian investigative journalist who's been working for years on Hungarian Russian relations and Russian influence activities in Hungary. He was trying to help me understand why Viktor Orban acts like a Russian Trojan Horse, what is he trying to get from the European Union and what's behind the unlikely alliance between him and Tucker Carlson. And now enjoy the conversation. 

Do you want to support the podcast and get bonus content, early access and much more? Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics This is a conversation with Vlad Vexler, a fellow Youtuber and a political philosopher with excellent insight into the Russian state and society. We talked about Navalny, Tucker Carlson's Putin interview, why there is a lack of opposition to Putin's regime and what would it take for someone to successfully challenge him and many other things. It was one of the most interesting conversations I've had on the channel so far and I have a lot to think about now. 

Listen to the full episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics This is a conversation with David Rennie, a China-based reporter for the Economist, a head of their Beijing Bureau and a co-author of an excellent podcast on China, the Drum Tower. David has lived and worked in China for decades, he speaks fluent Chinese and talks to both Chinese officials and people on the ground on a regular basis.  And so we talked about whether the Chinese leadership wants to take Taiwan by force and if it's preparing to do that, why the growing disillusionment with the economy is making the government very nervous and why even Chinese leadership has to care about what people think. And about many other things. Thank you to everyone who has decided to support this podcast on Patreon, it means a lot. And now enjoy the conversation.

You can find the bonus part of the interview on ➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Support this podcast on Patreon, help me make more episodes and get bonus content, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests. Check out Anders's YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck This is a conversation with Anders Puck Nielsen, a military analyst at the Royal Danish Defence College, a former Captain in the Royal Danish Navy and a fellow Youtuber. We talked about which of the two sides in the war in Ukraine actually has time on their side, why Russians use meat wave tactics, why do we misunderstand what a NATO-Russia conflict would look like and how can Ukraine win this war. And many other things.  Thank you to all the people who support this podcast on Patreon because you make this possible. And now enjoy this conversation.  0:00 - Intro 01:19 - Ukraine War & Naval Warfare 09:59 - Ukraine War & Air Warfare 09:59 - Ukraine War & Air Warfare 14:39 - Land Warfare & Russian "Meat wave" Tactics 29:41 - How can Ukraine Win the War? 41:11 - Who has time on their side? 44:27 - What if General Zaluzhny gets replaced?

➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Support this podcast on Patreon, help me make more episodes and get bonus content, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests. This is a conversation with General Richard Shirref. General Shirreff was one of the highest ranking British military commanders and a second in command of NATO forces. He has been warning of the Russian threat long before it became mainstream and in 2016, after he left the military he published a book called War with Russia in which Russia attacks Ukraine and afterwards continues to invade the Baltics, catching NATO completely unprepared - a book that was meant as a warning for what might be coming. In this conversation, we talk about why he was one of the few people who saw the threat clearly years before everyone else, why it would be extremely dangerous to underestimate the Russians and how prepared is NATO for a Russian aggression. Richard is extremely candid in his answers and he's not afraid to be critical and say things as they really are and so I think it's an extremely interesting conversation. Thank you to everyone who supports this show on Patreon because you make this possible, and now enjoy the podcast. 00:00 - Intro 01:17 - Predicting Russian Invasion 06:51 - Why we refused to see the Russian threat 11:09 - Russian Invasion in 2022 13:15 - Underestimating the Ukrainians 18:05 - Overestimating the Russians 21:55 - The Russian Threat for NATO 34:06 - How Prepared is NATO? 36:54 - The state of the British Military 40:42 - Do we need to introduce conscription? 44:31 - Is Taiwan a window of opportunity for Russia 46:47 - Can Europe defend itself without the U.S.?

➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics Listen to the full episode on Patreon, get Patreon-only episodes, early access and ask questions to the upcoming guests by helping me make more episodes and becoming a supporter. This is a conversation with George Barros. George leads the team at the Institute for the Study of War that is responsible for tracking and analyzing the war in Ukraine and making daily updates on what is going on in the battlefield and on the strategic level. They are now the most quoted think-tank in the world and so there is a good chance that you have seen George's work before.  In this conversation, we talk about the shape of the Russian military as it's getting ready for a major offensive against Ukraine, what are the real Russian losses and when will the Russians finally run out of tanks and whether Russia would and could attack NATO. And we also talked about the work of his team at ISW, how they track and analyze the conflict and how open source intelligence is changing the character of war. Enjoy the conversation.