The Strategy Bridge

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.” 

While military thinkers have assembled many lists of the principles of war, they have not developed a theory of tactics. Brett Friedman set out to remedy that situation by writing the book he wished he had when he was a junior officer. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast he joins us to talk about his book On Tactics: A Theory of Victory in Battle. Friedman is a military analyst and Marine Corps Reserve officer.

While naval historians and strategists have tended to focus on commerce raiding and ship-on-ship or fleet-on-fleet operations, naval history also includes many examples of wartime raiding and maritime security operations. In this episode of The Strategy Bridge Podcast we talk about naval irregular warfare in early America with Dr. Benjamin Armstrong. He is an active duty naval officer and Assistant Professor of War Studies and Naval History at the US Naval Academy. Armstrong is the author of the book Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare and the Early American Navy.

Throughout the 19th century the U.S. Army alternated between a small regular force scattered at isolated forts and large forces built quickly to fight major wars. In his book Preparing for War, Dr. J.P. Clark breaks the officer corps down into four generations between 1815-1917 whose ideas about professionalism and how to prepare for war were shaped by their institutions, experiences and culture. Clark is an active duty military officer who taught history at West Point and served as a strategic advisor at the Pentagon and British Ministry of Defense.

Over the past several years there has been a renewed interest in using gaming as a method to investigate national security decision making, explore policy and strategy options, and gain experience as practitioners. In this episode of the Strategy Bridge Podcast, we talk with Elizabeth Bartels about how wargames are designed, the differences in approaching gaming as an art and a science, and how games are used to think creatively about global competition. Bartels is a PhD candidate studying national security policy gaming at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. 

Nick Prime, PhD from King's College London and a Smith Richardson Fellow at Yale, discusses J.C. Wylie's influential book 'Military Strategy.' Prime unpacks Wylie's life, highlighting his pivotal contributions during WWII and his innovative concepts like 'centers of gravity.' The conversation dives into the nature of strategy, emphasizing adaptability over rigid definitions, and explores the relevance of Wylie's ideas in historical conflicts like Vietnam and Iraq. The intertwining of military philosophy and game theory also gets a thought-provoking examination.

From July 1966 to January 1970, Nigerians fought a civil war which led to the deaths of more than half a million people. Looking back at the American attempts to understand what was happening offers an opportunity to assess how intelligence analysts responded to a foreign policy challenge. In this episode we talk with Judd Devermont about the American intelligence community’s biases in its analysis of the Nigerian Civil War and its influence on American policy. Devermont is the director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has worked at the CIA, National Security Council, and in the office of the Director of National Intelligence. His article “The US intelligence community's biases during the Nigerian civil war” was published in African Affairs. Devermont is the host of the podcast “Into Africa.” The Strategy Bridge is a non-profit organization focused on the development of people in strategy, national security, & military affairs. To learn more about the strategy bridge journal, podcast, and events visit thestrategybridge.org.

In 1983 Soviet leaders interpreted a series of American actions leading up to Exercise ABLE ARCHER as real steps toward a nuclear attack. In this episode we talk with Dr. Bob Hamilton about how Soviets and Americans misunderstood each other and almost started a nuclear war. Hamilton is an Professor of Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College and a retired Army colonel. He is the author of the article “ABLE ARCHER at 35: Lessons of the 1983 War Scare.”