The Strategy Bridge

In this episode of Strategy Bridge Podcast, we talk with Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony about how the Apollo program to put men on the moon was created and run as an instrument of foreign policy. Muir-Harmony is the curator of the Project Apollo collection at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and is the author of the book “Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo.”

In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with Elizabeth Shackelford about her book “The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.” In the book Shackelford writes about her time in South Sudan as a Foreign Service Officer and what she experienced when the new country descended into war. 

In this engaging conversation, Jeremy Black, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter and author of “Military Strategy: A Global History,” explores the intricate relationship between strategic culture and military strategy. He discusses how political factors shape military decision-making and critiques the Eurocentric bias in existing literature. Black emphasizes the need to recognize the historical evolution of military strategy and the disconnect between theorists and practitioners. He also highlights the significance of ideology in shaping national interests and military responses.

In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with Prof. Beatrice Heuser from the University of Glasgow about whether strategic thinking as we have come to understand it existed in the centuries before the word “strategy” was introduced into the Western European languages. Heuser is the author of the book “Strategy Before Clausewitz: Linking Warfare and Statecraft, 1400-1830.” 

Nick Prime, a post-doctoral fellow specializing in strategic studies, explores Bernard Brodie's seminal work on naval strategy. They delve into Brodie's insights from World War II, discussing the shift from battleships to aircraft carriers and submarines. Prime emphasizes the enduring significance of geography in military tactics and the psychological aspects of naval courage. They also tackle how Brodie's views evolved with the advent of nuclear strategy, highlighting the necessity of adapting approaches to modern warfare.

In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast, we talk with Dr. John Lewis Gaddis about his book “On Grand Strategy.” Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military & Naval History at Yale University and was the founding director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy.

In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with Dr. Jacqueline Whitt and Dr. J.P. Clark about their two essays in the book "On Strategy: A Primer.” Whitt is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the Army War College and the author of the essay “The Strategists’ Mixing Board: Characteristics of a Strategist.” Clark is an active duty Army officer who has served 14 years as an Army Strategist and is the co-author along with Frances Park of the essay ”Practical Strategists: The Perspective and Craft of the General Staff Officer.”

In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with August Cole about how fiction and imaginative thinking can inform how we approach national security affairs. Cole is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. From 2014-2017 he directed the Art of Future Warfare Project which explored creative and narrative works for insight into the future of conflict. He works on creative futures at SparkCognition, an artificial intelligence company, and along with Peter Singer he is the author of two novels “Ghost Fleet” and “Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution.”

During World War II, librarians, archivists, microfilm specialists, and book connoisseurs were recruited by the US government to go overseas and collect enemy books, newspapers, journals, and other publications as part of an open-source intelligence effort. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk about their work with Dr. Kathy Peiss. She is a professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together In World War II Europe.”

In 1971, the New York Times published leaked versions of what became known as the Pentagon Papers. The papers were part of a 7,000 page report commissioned by Defense Sec. Robert McNamara that looked at the history of the American involvement in Vietnam. Later that year, political theorist Hannah Arendt published an essay in the New York Review of Books called “Lying in Politics” that focused on issues of deception and self-deception as revealed in the Pentagon Papers. In this episode we talk with Dr. Celestino Perez about Arendt’s essay and what it can teach us about decision making. Perez is a colonel in the U.S. Army and a professor at the Army War College.