The Strategy Bridge

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.

Since its establishment during the Truman administration, the U.S. foreign assistance program has been seen by policymakers as a primary means of influencing the politics and economies of recipient countries. But the effects of foreign assistance has often had unintended consequences. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge podcast we talk with Dr. Jessica Trisko Darden about how US foreign assistance contributes to state violence and government repression. Trisko Darden is an assistant professor of international affairs at the School of International Service at American University and is the author of Aiding and Abetting: US Foreign Assistance and State Violence.

From the 1870s-1890s the U.S. Navy experienced a strategical awakening. Changes in technology, international politics, and other factors drove officers to develop new concepts of naval professionalism, identity, and organization. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with Dr. Scott Mobley about how this awakening unfolded. Mobley teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author of Progressives in Navy Blue. Special thanks to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum and Claude Berube for providing a space to record.

In 1863, Camp William Penn was established outside of Philadelphia to train African American soldiers for the Union Army. By the end of the war eleven U.S. Colored Troops regiments were trained there and would go on to serve in Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and other states. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk with Donald Scott about the U.S. Colored Troops and Camp William Penn. Scott is an assistant professor at the Community College of Philadelphia and a history columnist for Digital First Media, Inc. He is the author of the book “Camp William Penn, 1863-1865.”