Urban Warfare Project

This episode features John Spencer's discussion with Col. Douglas Winton, chair of the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations at the US Army War College. They tackle the question of whether urban terrain strips a militarily superior attacking force of its advantages and grants a weaker, defending force a degree of parity.

In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project podcast, John Spencer is joined by Dr. Richard Norton, aprofessor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College and a retired US Navy commander. Dr. Norton discusses his research on what he calls "feral cities,"—those in which the state has lost the ability to maintain the rule of law yet remain a functioning actor in the greater international system.

This episode of the Urban Warfare Project podcast is unique, because it isn't strictly about urban warfare. In fact, the stories shared by retired Sgt. 1st Class William Rothrock actually occurred in rural areas in Afghanistan. But the subject matter is extremely relevant to military operations in cities. The stories involve cases when he and his fellow soldiers confronted subterranean environments, which exist in a variety of complex forms in cities around the world.

In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project podcast, John Spencer is joined by retired Col. Patrick Mahaney, the cofounder and director of the National Center for Urban Operations. During his thirty-two years in the Army, he held key leadership positions from the tactical to strategic levels, serving as director and senior military fellow for the chief of staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group and commander of the Asymmetric Warfare Group, a tactical Special Forces battalion, and a special operations task force.

In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project podcast, John Spencer is joined by retired Lt. Col. Rob MacMillan. He served as the battalion operations officer of 1-68 Armor during the 2008 battle of Sadr City. The conversation offers a detailed operational view of the battle—and of the unique challenges of urban warfare.

In this episode of the Urban Warfare Project podcast, from the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer is joined by Sahr Muhammedally from the Center for Civilians in Conflict, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to convince parties to armed conflicts to recognize the dignity and rights of civilians.

In this episode of the Urban Warfare Project podcast, from the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer is joined by Col. Rich Creed, director of the Army’s Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate.

In the first episode of the Urban Warfare Project podcast, from the Modern War Institute at West Point, John Spencer is joined by Dr. David Kilcullen, author of Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla.