

Decoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl
Decoding Geopolitics
Decoding Geopolitics is a podcast that tries to make sense of today's dangerous world by talking with real experts on international relations, strategy and security.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 28, 2024 • 54min
#20 Lukas Milevski: This Is What Happens If Russia Invades The Baltics
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This is a conversation with Lukas Milevski, a professor at Leiden University and an expert on strategy and defense and security of the Baltic countries. In this interview, we talk about what would happen if Russia invades the Baltics, how prepared they are, if they could be successful and how big of a risk it actually is.
Thank you to everyone supporting this podcast - and now, enjoy the conversation.

Apr 21, 2024 • 54min
#19 Brian Hart (CSIS): How Strong Is China's Military & Is It Prepared for War?
➡️ PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingGeopolitics
This is a conversation with Brian Hart - a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and an expert on China's military and its foreign and security policy. We talked about what is the real capability of China's military, whether it's a paper tiger or if it's prepared and ready to take Taiwan by force, if 2027 is the year when we should expect the war to happen or how ready is Taiwan to fight back.

Apr 11, 2024 • 58min
#18 David Gioe: CIA Officer on Outsmarting the Russians, Chinese Spies and the Ukraine War
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This is a conversation with David Gioe. David has two decades of experience as an intelligence officer, starting his career in the FBI and then joining the CIA, first as an analyst and later as an field-qualified operations officer. He deployed a number of times overseas and worked on counter-intelligence, clandestine operations and covert action. After retiring from the CIA, David has moved to academia and today he works as a professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and he is a visiting professor of Intelligence and and International Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.
We talked about how the world of intelligence really works, how it has changed since the cold war or how agents working in the field do their job at a time when anonymity is increasingly disappearing. And how the CIA manages to stay ahead of the Russians, why Chinese spies work differently than anyone else and much much more.
Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast on Patreon. If you want to follow David you can go to his Twitter or website and now, enjoy this conversation.

Apr 2, 2024 • 1h 4min
#17 Mark Galeotti: Putin's Growing Problems & Why Russia Is More Fragile Than It Seems
➡️ 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.

Mar 27, 2024 • 53min
#16 Ulrike Franke (ECFR): Why Germany Won't Give Ukraine Taurus & Why It Struggles To Fix Its Military
➡️ 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

Mar 21, 2024 • 50min
#15 Alex Vatanka: Iran's Dangerous Geopolitical Strategy & Why The U.S. Can't Stop It
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.

Mar 8, 2024 • 48min
#14 Mick Ryan: Australian General on What a War With China Will Look Like
➡️ 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.

Mar 1, 2024 • 32min
#13 Szabolcs Panyi: Why Hungary Supports Russia & Orban's Grand Strategy
➡️ 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.

Feb 23, 2024 • 59min
#12 Vlad Vexler: Navalny, War and the Future of Russia
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.

Feb 16, 2024 • 56min
#11 David Rennie (Drum Tower): Is China Getting Ready for War?
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.


