Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

I discuss the complex adaptive system that is war that Clausewitz categorically identified as "friction" in the nineteenth century. We'll examine what chaos and complexity has to do with conflict, why it is inevitable and why wars are won by the least incompetent armies and navies.References:Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the GameCarl von Clausewitz On WarMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

The April 1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers (Putsch des généraux), was a failed military action to press French President Charles de Gaulle to not abandon French Algeria, along with French people and pro-French Arabs living there. The putsch in French Algeria was conducted by four retired generals, led by Maurice Challe, the commander of the French Armed Forces in Algeria in 1958-60 and the author of the successful Challe Plan. The plan which in effect helped to defeat militant rebels across Algeria.References:Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting ForceDouglas Porch CounterinsurgencyAlistair Horne A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962Martin Evans Algeria: France's Undeclared War (Making of the Modern World)My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

In this episode, I go through some of the more interesting emails and comments I have gotten since the podcast began in September 2022.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

his episodes examines the unconventional and eccentric mind sets of Lawrence and other famous and obscure military figures. We examine the way some armies embrace this while others discourage it.References:Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle EastJames J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab RevoltTE Lawrence Seven Pillars of WisdomDesmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New BiographyJeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE LawrenceRanulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. LawrenceMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

In this episode we will discuss how Lawrence's medievalism gave him a tremendous advantage serendipitously advising and leading the local Arab revolt during WWI against the Turks and more deeply, Allied efforts to map a post-war world. His predilections in study, preparation and application of his 27 points led to a success the British army and the larger Allied effort could not have achieved without him.References:Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle EastJames J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab RevoltTE Lawrence Seven Pillars of WisdomDesmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New BiographyJeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE LawrenceRanulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. LawrenceMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

One of the peak guerrilla fountainheads in the early twentieth century, TE Lawrence has been in both the popular imagination and a large part of the engine in the Middle East that signed the death knell for foreign colonial powers to leave the region, Eccentric and brilliant, one of the few successful insurgency leaders during WWI.References:Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle EastJames J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab RevoltTE Lawrence Seven Pillars of WisdomDesmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New BiographyJeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE LawrenceRanulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. LawrenceMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

The brilliant John Milius helmed this production in the thick of the cold war waning with the USSR. This will be the first episode where we examine the collision between irregular warfare and popular culture.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Government, for a variety of reasons, is manifestly incompetent in everything it does and this lends parts of the explanatory framework in why systemic failure is the feature not a bug in Western martial efforts.The critiques of the government supremacist mindset are legion and one can find many rational and elegant theses if you start at the Mises Institute and listen to the podcasts of Scott Horton at Antiwar.com. Scott and I recently did a deep dive together in Episode 5850 "Bill Buppert: A Deep Dive into Irregular Warfare" on 17 February 2023.References:Ludwig von Mises BureaucracyColin Gray Modern StrategyThomas Sowell Knowledge and DecisionDaniel P. Bolger How We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan WarsMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

As a former Appleseed instructor and Shoot Boss in AZ, I had the opportunity to teach a marksmanship/history project that had me master the origins and details of the first month of the First American Revolution. I cover the "Three Strikes of the Match" that we used as an organization to educate folks about the marriage between marksmanship and liberty that initiated the divorce from London in 1775.References:David Hackett Fischer Paul Revere's RideJ. L. Bell The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary WarRobert A. Gross The Minutemen and Their WorldJohn R. Galvin The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American RevolutionKevin Phillips The Cousins War: Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, And The Triumph Of Anglo-AmericaJohn F. Ross War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First FrontierStephen Brumwell White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery And Vengeance in Colonial AmericaMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII.References:Sean McMeekin Stalin's War: A New History of World War IIJohn Koster Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl HarborHerbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's TraitorsM. Stanton Evans, Herbert Romerstein Stalin's Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt's GovernmentMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.