Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
Bill Buppert
An unauthorized podcast series peeking behind the curtain at the vast machinery and briar patch politics of fighting terrorism and insurgency and everything in between. I'm a "COINtra" and not a "COINdinista", the latter are the vast army of apparatchiks and apologists who fire the engines of Irregular Warfare (IW) planet-wide. We're the skeptics and doubters of all things IW and special operations. And we are a tiny sliver of the IW community. I have noticed a jarring gap in this part of the discussion and intend on filling the breach.Substack: Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare PodcastSmedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian InstituteChasing Ghosts Podcast on YouTubeI am an Amazon Affiliate.You can contact me at cgpodcast@pm.me
Episodes
Mentioned books
Nov 6, 2022 • 37min
Ep 003 "Michael Collins: The Empire Blinks"
The Irish Rebellion in 1916-1922 is what I characterize as in the era of "Peak Guerrilla" in concert with the exploits of TE Lawrence and GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck that set the stage for the modern irregular warfare era in the twentieth century. I will examine the exploits of Collins and the curious currents of history on a global basis that came to have great impacts on what appear to be local and regional conflicts and their final resolution.References:Tim Pat Coogan Michael CollinsJames Gleeson Bloody SundayTom Barry Guerrilla Days in IrelandMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.
Oct 10, 2022 • 57min
Ep 002 "Antifragility and Irregular Warfare"
In this episode, I make the case that insurgencies are antifragile and that counterinsurgencies are fragile for the most part; we discuss the concepts, examine historical and contemporary examples and set the stage for practitioners and scholars to leverage this model to gain a more true understanding of how IW works.References:Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from DisorderDouglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of WarMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.
Sep 26, 2022 • 38min
Ep 001 "Terms of Endearment"
This charter episode will discuss the intent of the podcast and get started with the basics to create a framework of common understanding. This episode will discuss the National Defense Strategy, generations of warfare, civil war and the regional conflict complexes that emerge from larger wars and conflicts. Irregular warfare (IW) is rather complex and tends to be muddier, more nuanced and subject to interpretative misconceptions and we'll lay the groundwork for understanding these in both the larger and smaller contexts.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.
