Royal United Services Institute

Talking Strategy

About the show

Our thinking about defence and security is shaped by ideas. What we see depends on our vantage point and the lenses we apply to the world. Governments, military and business leaders are seeking to maximise the value they gain from scarce resources by becoming more 'strategic'. Standing on the shoulders of the giants of strategy from the past helps us see further and more clearly into the future. This series is aimed at those looking to learn more about strategy and how to become more strategic – leaders, practitioners and scholars. This podcast series, co-chaired by Professor Beatrice Heuser and Paul O'Neill, examines the ideas of important thinkers from around the world and across the ages. The ideas, where they came from and what shaped those whose ideas shape us now. By exploring the concepts in which we and our adversaries think today, the episodes will shine a light on how we best prepare for tomorrow. The views or statements expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by RUSI employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of RUSI.

Newest episodes

S7E4: The Dangers of Strategic Fashion: Dr Chiara Libiseller

Nov 3, 2026 35 min

The Dangers of Strategic Fashion: Dr Chiara Libiseller Buzzwords and jargon abound in the literature on strategy. While they can be useful lenses through which to understand change, they can obfuscate variety in warfare. Strategic thinking runs aground when it sees what it is looking for and not what is really there. When ladies' skirts became longer and more voluminous in the 1950s, this fashion was referred to as "the New Look", a term then borrowed to describe the USA's new nuclear strategy. The term obscured the dual nature of this strategic change: at once it was a strategy of deterrence by denial by introducing battlefield nuclear weapons, and one of deterrence by punishment, by holding at risk massively major cities within the Soviet sphere of power. Similarly, other fashionable labels have been used in strategic thinking from Low Intensity Conflict in the Vietnam War era, to the more recent Revolution in Military Affairs, Counterinsurgency, or Hybrid Warfare – three terms explored by Chiara Libiseller. They are latched onto by those wishing to be seen as ahead of the curve. As officials and academics are forever inventing new definitions, confusion arises as to the meaning of such terms, for they are used differently by individual scholars and often thought to mean different things by the practitioners who try to use them in their work. Dr Chiara Libiseller is a Lecturer in Strategic Studies for the Department of War Studies, King's College, London, where her research focuses on Western knowledge production about war and strategy and its effects on practice. She is also the deputy editor of the Journal of Strategic Studies and part of the Advisory Committee of Women in International Security in the United Kingdom. Recommended Reading Libiseller, Chiara: Reconceptualising War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026). Marks, Michael: Metaphors in international relations theory (New York: Sprin...

S7E3: Escape from the World-Island: Geopolitics and Geoeconomics

Oct 20, 2026 36 min

Professor Scott Smitson traces the origins of geopolitics and geoeconomics as concepts and why these forgotten ideas are returning to shape today's world. The triumphalism following the end of the Cold War led some to believe we had reached The End of History, and that great powers had moved beyond a world shaped by geopolitics and geoeconomics. Robert Kaplan's The Revenge of Geography in 2012 challenged this view, arguing that geography still shapes how states see the world, and can either strengthen them or limit their ambitions. This is the core of geopolitics, an idea developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by thinkers such as Rudolf Kjellén and Sir Halford Mackinder. Drawing on the achievements of the Mongol Empire – see our discussion of its chief strategist, Subotai, in Season 4, Episode 1 – Mackinder believed that whoever rules the Heartland (Eurasia), commands the 'World Island' and thus the world. This was problematic for maritime powers, and later Nicholas Spykman argued that it was actually whoever controlled the Rimland, the coastal regions surrounding Eurasia, who controlled the destinies of the world. This was reflected in George Kennan's logic behind the Cold War containment strategy toward the Soviet Union. Its legacy remains in thinking about China, but does the Belt and Road Initiative suggest an attempt by China to break out of this singular characterisation and reduce its vulnerability to classical containment? Professor Scott Smitson is Director of the Grand Strategy Program at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He served for 21 years in the US Army, including as a strategist at US Central and Southern Commands and the Joint Staff. Has also served for a period as a US Officer embedded in the UK's Ministry of Defence Strategic Plans team. Further Reading: Nicholas J. Spykman, Geography of the Peace, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1944. Halford Mackinder, 'The Geographical Pivot of History', The Geographical Journal, Vol. 23, No. 4,...

S7E2: What Does a Return to Realpolitik Mean? With Professor John Bew

Oct 6, 2026 33 min

What is realpolitik, and why is the world said to be returning to it? Professor John Bew CMG traces the idea back to its origins. The world may well be entering a new age of realpolitik, but the harder question is defining which kind. The term is usually associated with an unsentimental use of power to further national interests, often seen as a rejection of a more idealistic, values-based approach to international relations. But that's not where it came from. Realpolitik was first coined in 1853 by Ludwig von Rochau, a German liberal, who used it to describe something different: the ability to understand and adapt to the realities of power, and to pursue enlightened goals in a world that doesn't follow enlightened rules. For von Rochau, Realpolitik wasn't just about foreign policy – the strongest states, he argued, were those that could harness social forces at home and manage internal division effectively. Professor John Bew is a historian at King's College London and a leading figure at the Centre for Statecraft and National Security. He has advised four British Prime Ministers and authored three UK National Security Strategies. His book, Realpolitk: a History is a definitive work on the subject, just as are his biographies on Castlereagh and Attlee. Further reading: John Bew, Realpolitik: A History (Hurst, 2026). Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Simon & Schuster, 1994). Henry Kissinger, A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–22 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999).

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All episodes

S7E4: The Dangers of Strategic Fashion: Dr Chiara Libiseller

Nov 3, 2026 35 min

S7E3: Escape from the World-Island: Geopolitics and Geoeconomics

Oct 20, 2026 36 min

S7E2: What Does a Return to Realpolitik Mean? With Professor John Bew

Oct 6, 2026 33 min

S7E1: Avoiding Strategic Surprise: Lessons from NATO with Dr Florence Gaub

Sep 22, 2026 32 min

NATO expert Dr Florence Gaub explains how strategic foresight helps NATO anticipate and avoid strategic surprise in an uncertain world. Strategic surprise happens when new information fundamentally changes how we see the world. In an increasingly uncertain global landscape, predicting exact outcomes is nearly impossible – and that unpredictability heightens the risk of surprise. Yet as Lord Mervyn King explored in Season 6, genuine 'Black Swan' events – to quote Nicholas Taleb – are rarer than we think. Dr Florence Gaub describes how we can use strategic foresight to anticipate possible – even if unlikely – futures and avoid being caught off guard. She cautions, however, that it is not enough to 'think the unthinkable', futurologists also need to have their voice heard and acted on by those in power, so the work has to straddle both creative thinking and engaging with bureaucracies. Dr Florence Gaub is the Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defence College having previously worked at the European Union Institute for Security Studies. Her PhD in international politics is from Humbolt University. She is the author of Future, a User's Guide, a graphic novel for NATO called NATO, 2099, and editor of What If…?: Ten Dragon King Scenarios for 2030, which was published at the NATO Defence College in 2025. Further Reading Florence Gaub, Future, a User's Guide, Hurst, 2026. Florence Gaub, NATO, 2099: A Graphic Novel, NATO, 2024 Florence Gaub (ed.), What If…?: Ten Dragon King Scenarios for 2030, NATO Future Series, November 2025 Florence Gaub and Jonathan Heist, 'NATO's Permanent Crisis', Foreign Affairs, 16 June 2026. Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Random House, 2015. Related RUSI Talking Strategy Episodes Talking Strategy, Season 3, Episode 6 – Net Assessment as a Tool of Strategy, with Andrew Marshall and Dr Thomas Mahnken. RUSI. Talking Strategy, Season 4, Episode 14 – Evolving, Adopting and Adaptin...

S6E22: Delivering National Security Strategies

Jul 14, 2026 38 min

Former UN Ambassador and National Security Advisor Sir Mark Lyall Grant discusses the challenges facing delivery of Western security strategies. In this season of Talking Strategy we have explored many of the key themes of today's security and defence strategies, but the test of a strategy is what changes as a result. A perfectly written strategy that makes the wrong assumptions, or that cannot be delivered, is meaningless at best, and often worse. In the final episode of this season, we examine the vital question of how defence strategy is delivered. With so many Western strategies built on the assumption of a rules based international order, the fracturing of that system poses profound challenges for our defence strategies. Sir Mark, who chaired the UN Security Council four times, describes how the assumption was perhaps overblown – based on a 'Golden Age' that only lasted for 25 years – and how the world is moving in a disorderly manner towards a three-tier model in which interests are enforced through power. In this new world, governments need to confront the reality that they cannot guarantee the safety of their citizens alone or without the help of their populations. This affects how governments operate – their structures and processes – and the conversations they need to have with their people and allies. Further Reading Mark Lyall Grant, 'The world order in crisis', Horizons: Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development, vol.21 (2022): 124-133. Peter Ricketts, Hard Choices: The Making and Unmaking of Global Britain, Atlantic Books, 2021. Jack Watling, Statecraft: The New Rules of Power in a Divided World, Macmillan, 2026.

S6E21: Dr Jack Watling on Ukrainian Adaptation to War

Jun 30, 2026 33 min

In our 100th episode, we talk to RUSI senior research fellow Dr Jack Watling about the transformation in Ukraine in response to Russia's War. Against what many considered a materially superior adversary, Ukraine has not only withstood Russian aggression, but has fought back with courage, ingenuity and commitment from the whole of society. We discuss how it has achieved this, not just through the armed forces, but in mobilising its people and industry. We also consider what lessons there are for others facing the threat of modern war. Dr Jack Watling is one of the UK's foremost commentators on Russia's war in Ukraine. The author of Statecraft: The New Rules of Power in a Divided World and co-author of the RUSI paper Tactical Developments During the Third Year of the Russo-Ukrainian War, his analysis of the war is highly prized by many governments. Further Reading Jack Watling, Statecraft: The New Rules of Power in a Divided World, MacMillan, 2026. Jack Watling, Oleksandr Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds, Preliminary Lessons from Ukraine's Offensive Operations, 2022-2023, RUSI, 2024. Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds, Tactical Developments During the Third Year of the Russo-Ukrainian War, RUSI, 2025. Siddarth Kaushal & Paul O'Neill (eds.), The Role of Dissimilar Rearmament in Allied Deterrence, RUSI Whitehall Paper 102, 2025.

S6E20: Preparing for War: Adaptable Forces and Societies

Jun 16, 2026 36 min

Professor Olivier Schmitt describes the systemic challenges of military transformation, given rapidly evolving technology and NATO's distinct strategic cultures. Modern defence and security reviews highlight the deteriorating security environment and the need to prepare forces. But, as we hear from Lord King (Season 6, Episode 3), the ability to adapt will be essential; we need a mindset that allows for continuous change. This is both enabled by, and made harder within, an alliance context where members' different strategic cultures – with different civil-military relations, defence procurement and operations – present systemic dilemmas. Professor Olivier Schmitt is the Head of Research at the Institute of Military Operations at the Royal Danish Defence College. He completed his doctorate at the Department of War Studies, King's College London. His most recent book, Preparing for War: Strategy, Power and Military Change, was published by Hurst/Oxford University Press in 2026. Further Reading: Schmitt, Olivier: Preparing for War. Strategy, Power and Military Change. (London, Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2026). Schmitt, Olivier, Sten Rynning and Amelie Theussen (eds): War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2021) Barno, David and Bensahel, Nora: Adaptation Under Fire. How Militaries change in Wartime (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020). Finkel, Meir: On Flexibility: Recovery from Technological and Doctrinal Surprise on the Battlefield (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2011). Fox, Aimee: Learning to Fight: Military Innovation and Change in the British Army, 1914-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017). Goya, Michel: Flesh and Steel during the Great War: The Transformation of the French Army and the Invention of Modern Warfare (London: Pen and Sword, 2018). Hoffman, Frank: Mars Adapting: Military Change During War (Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Adversarial Strategy: Russia's Preparations for a Long War

Jun 2, 2026 32 min

We look at how Russia's armed forces are learning lessons from combat and examine Moscow's ambitions in its war against Ukraine. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is part of a long-term, much larger project of turning Russia into a regional hegemon with influence on other continents, while it builds relationships with China and others who may help its goals. In this episode, Dr Andrew Monaghan, RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, unravels the threat and the depth of Russian long-term preparation for war. Dr Monaghan is a senior British expert on Russia with extensive publications. He has directed research on Russia at NATO's Research Division in Rome, at Oxford University's Changing Character War Centre, and has worked at the UK's Defence Academy and Chatham House. He holds his PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

Bullion to Bullets: Mobilising the Financial Markets

May 19, 2026 35 min

The Centre for Economic Security's Dr Rebecca Harding argues for the importance of financial markets as the fourth pillar in supporting effective mobilisation. Conversations about industrial mobilisation often focus on the triumvirate of government, armed forces and industry. In this episode we add a fourth pillar, that of finance, and the need for governments to consider how the economic system can be co-opted to the task of providing defence and security for their nations. Something that the US government recognised during the Civil War when, in 1861-1862, it issued the emergency paper current – the Greenback – to finance the war effort. The vital role of finance in recapitalising armed forces, and in building resilience, reinforces the need for comprehensive thinking about security discussed in earlier episodes and takes the task of mobilisation beyond defence ministries into all aspects of modern societies. Dr Rebecca Harding is CEO of the Centre for Economic Security and an independent trade economist. Her strategic advisory business, Rebeccanomics provides analytical services in international trade, trade finance and sustainability. She has also acted as a specialist advisor to the UK Treasury Select Committee. She published The World at Economic War: How to Rebuild Security in a Weaponized Global Economy (London Publishing Partnership, 2025) and has co-authored numerous other publications, including The Weaponization of Trade: The Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics, in 2017. She appears regularly as a commentator on BBC, Bloomberg, Sky News and CNBC.

S6E17: Industrial Mobilisation: Harnessing the Capacity of Defence Primes Andrea Thompson

May 5, 2026 36 min

Despite an increasing focus on SMEs, effective industrial mobilisation must also better harness the power of traditional defence firms. Andrea Thompson from BAE Systems explains how. The excitement in defence ministries about improving how they engage with dynamic and innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is understandable but represents only a partial element of what is needed for industrial mobilisation. As Christian Broze explained in the previous episode, the traditional defence primes remain crucial actors and often have the capacity for mass that SMEs lack. Effectively engaging industry in the plans for growth of defence capacity that have been touted in defence reviews has to be multi-faceted, acknowledging the heterogenous nature of industry as a whole and responsive enough to accommodate the differences between distinct parts of the same enterprise. Andrea Thompson offers the perspective of a large defence prime, drawing on her experience as Group Managing Director for BAE Systems' Digital Intelligence. With a career spanning the UK and US, she has worked at Rockwell International, Rolls Royce and BAE Systems, including in BAE's F-35 and Eurofighter Typhoon programmes, and as the Chair of the Eurofighter Supervisory Board for the Eurofighter GmbH consortium. She was named in the Financial Times' UK Top 100 list of Most Influential Women in the Engineering Sector in 2019.

S6E16: Harnessing Disruptors in the Defence Industrial Ecosystem: Anduril Industries

Apr 21, 2026 41 min

The preparedness of Western armed forces for conflict is something that has featured prominently in many defence reviews. Christian Brose, Anduril's President & Chief Strategy Officer, describes how governments can build effective relationships with innovative, disruptive small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the defence industrial ecosystem, and how they can develop new strategies for achieving greater military capability to meet preparedness requirements. It is clear there is no one-size-fits-all approach; Christian argues that today, government and the defence industry need to follow traditional approaches where that makes sense, and more modern, adaptive approaches for equipment that is designed to be scaled and mass produced without imposing huge investment and talent costs on suppliers. Christian is the President and Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries, prior to which he was Staff Director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Further Reading Christian Brose, The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, Hachette, 2020. Anduril Industries, Rebuild the Arsenal, PT-00/05, accessible at https://www.anduril.com/rebuild-the-arsenal. Sidharth Kaushal and Paul O'Neill eds., Whitehall Paper 102, The Role of Dissimilar Rearmament, RUSI, 2025.

S6E15: Integrating Today's Forces for Air and Missile Defence

Apr 8, 2026 33 min

Rear Admiral Archer M Macy Jr describes today's military, organisational, human and cultural risks and opportunities in integrating forces for air and missile defence. Many modern defence reviews focus on the need for integration. Arguably, nowhere is the need more important today than in providing air and missile defence. State and non-state adversaries have shown varying abilities to combine their attacks in ways that pose multiple dilemmas. Using small, slow-moving and low flying drones intended to swamp defences, coordinated with aircraft and cruise, hypersonic and ballistic missiles, these packages present huge challenges across a wide span of heights, speeds and trajectories. As well as being a problem for fielded forces, it is an industrial challenge in making sure there are enough interceptors at the right price point to sustain the defences. In this episode, RAdm Macy USN (Retd) offers his unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities based on his time in the Aegis Program Office and most recently as the Director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization in the US Joint Staff. Further Reading Sidharth Kaushal, Archer Macy, and Alexandra Stickings. The future of NATO's air and missile defence. RUSI Occasional Paper, Royal United Services Institute, 2021, available at https://static.rusi.org/NATOMissileDefence2021.pdf. Brian R. Green, Offense-Defense Integration for Missile Defeat: the Scope of the Challenge, Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2020, available at https://www.csis.org/analysis/offense-defense-integration-missile-defeat. David C. Gompert, Preparing Military Forces for Integrated Operations in the Face of Uncertainty, RAND 2003, available at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP250.html. Luke Harding, 'Judges with machine guns: the part-time drone hunters defending Kyiv', The Guardian, 9 May 2024. Talking Strategy, Season 6, Episode 14, Force Integration in 1940 – Dowding's...

S6E14: Force Integration in 1940: Dowding's Air Defence System

Mar 24, 2026 30 min

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's air defence system was crucial during the Battle of Britain. The RAF Museum's Andrew Renwick describes how it was created. In the 1930s, Great Britain, wrestled with the challenge of achieving wide area air defence to protect against threats from continental Europe while reliant on many different elements. ACM Hugh Dowding was tasked with solving this problem. His solution was a system that integrated detection systems, including classified intelligence sources and the new radar technology, with disaggregated command and control systems directing fighters onto the enemy. It was this 'Dowding System' that underpinned British success in the Battle of Britain. As Winston Churchill put it: 'All the ascendancy of the Hurricanes and Spitfires would have been fruitless but for this system, which had been devised and built before the war.' Paul and Beatrice are joined by Andrew Renwick, the curator of photographs at the Royal Air Force Museum Hendon. He is the author of RAF Hendon, Birthplace of Aerial Power, published by Flight Recorder Publications in 2021. Further Reading John Terraine, Right of the Line: The Role of the RAF in World War Two, Pen & Sword, 2010. Vincent Orange, Dowding of Fighter Command: Victor of the Battle of Britain. Grub Street, 2008. Basil Collier, Leader of the Few: the authorised biography of Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding of Bentley Priory. Jarrolds, 1957. T. C. G. James, The Growth of Fighter Command 1936-1940, Air Defence of Great Britain Vol. I (Royal Air Force Official Histories, Air Historical Branch), Routledge, 2001. Understanding the Dowding System, a Briefing Paper by the Association of RAF Fighter Control Officers, https://www.raffca.uk/art_UnderstandingTheDowdingSystem.php

S6E13: Transforming Poland's Military: General Rajmund Andrzejczak

Mar 10, 2026 33 min

As European nations discuss preparing their militaries for war, Poland's former Chief of Defence, General Rajmund Andrzejczak, describes how they have led the way in increased military spend. With almost 5% of its GDP now invested in defence, Poland has moved at speed to grow its armed forces. Indeed, Poland stands out as the European NATO member that has moved fastest to respond to the threats facing the Alliance and is rapidly becoming a European leader in defence. In this episode, we talk to General Andrzejczak, the Chief of General Staff for the Polish Armed Forces between 2018 and 2023. It was while he was Poland's most senior military officer that preparations to face the new threat posed by Russia in Europe were accelerated. He describes the opportunities and challenges in the transformation implemented across the physical, moral and conceptual components of Polish fighting power and what is still needed for NATO to deliver on its ambitions. He also discusses how the European members of NATO might meet the Russia threat and respond to 'the strategic double espresso' of the 2025 US National Security Strategy. A graduate of Poland's National Defence Academy, the Czech Army Defence Academy, and the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, General Andrzejczak is an expert commentator on European defence and security.

S6E12: The Elder Moltke: Preparing for Victory in 1800s Prussia

Feb 24, 2026 33 min

How did Prussia turn from a beaten underdog into the leader of a united Germany following its victories of the 19th century? In this episode, Geoffrey Wawro, Professor of Military History at the University of North Texas, joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Chief of Staff of the Prussian Army from 1857–71. Given the limited funding available to Prussia, von Moltke the Elder successfully advocated for investments in essential infrastructure and the weapons with the greatest effect, rather than spreading funds thinly and ineffectively. Professor Wawro explains how Prussia emerged victorious from three successive wars in Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870-71), the role of education and how the military adapted to new technology on all levels.

S6E11: Finland's Comprehensive Security Model

Feb 10, 2026 36 min

Often seen as the gold standard for societal resilience, Finland has many admirers. The Secretary General of its Security Committee, Petteri Korvala, describes Finland's approach. Many nations are exploring how to build societal resilience as part of a comprehensive approach to security. The Scandinavian countries are often seen as exemplars of best practice, with Finland arguably leading the pack. But delivering resilience through comprehensive security requires trust across all elements of society and a cultural shift as much as it needs the right structures and processes. In this episode, we hear from the Secretary General of Finland's Security Committee, Petteri Korvala, about how their comprehensive security system works. Petteri Korvala has over 30 years of experience in Finland's defence forces and internationally, including in the Ministry of Defence and in Finland's Permanent Representation to the European Union, as well as having served as a liaison officer in United States European Command. Further Reading: Finnish Government, Security Strategy for Society: Government Resolution, 2025:3, available at https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/items/0126122a-1e8a-4ffa-9868-6286292efc01 Vesa Valtonen & Minna Branders, 'Tracing the Finnish Comprehensive Security Model', in Sebastian Larsson & Mark Rhinard (eds.), Nordic Societal Security, Routledge, 2020, pp.91-108. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003045533-7/tracing-finnish-comprehensive-security-model-vesa-valtonen-minna-branders. Ari-Elmeri Hyvönen & Tapio Juntunen, 'From "spiritual defence" to robust resilience in the Finnish comprehensive security model', in Sebastian Larsson & Mark Rhinard (eds.), Nordic Societal Security Routledge, 2020, pp.154–178. Tom Woolmore, The Porcupine and the Hedgehog: The Influence of Finland's Comprehensive Security Model on the British Whole-of-Society Approach, King's College London Master's Dissertation, 2025, available at: https...

S6E10: Britain's Preparation for War: Professor Sir Hew Strachan

Jan 27, 2026 36 min

Britain was not ready for the First World War but some key, if embryonic, plans and capabilities proved vital. Sir Hew Strachan discusses the lessons for today. With concerns rising about how ready Western nations are for the risk of war in Europe, we discuss the lessons from Britain's preparation for The Great War. And while preparation is important, not all actions to prepare are equally important. In this case, Britain was not fully prepared but had taken some initial steps that were important in allowing the country to accelerate towards preparedness. The crucial elements concerned the ability to engage society, coordinate across government and ensure a robust industrial base that supported the armed force that drew on the talent of regular and volunteer forces. As a result, Britain was better (although not perfectly) prepared for the Second World War. And large parts of Europe seem further away from readiness now, so the lessons are vitally important. Joining us to discuss these lessons is Professor Sir Hew Strachan from the University of St Andrews. Described by Jonathan Boff as 'the most influential British historian of the First World War of his generation', Professor Strachan has published widely on the First World War and is a regular advisor to the British Government and Ministry of Defence, particularly in relation to reserve forces and veterans.

S6E9: The Iron Chancellor: Otto von Bismarck's Unification of Germany

Jan 13, 2026 32 min

Professor Michael Epkenhans describes how Otto von Bismarck's adroit use of war, realpolitik and the harnessing all levers of state power unified the German nation. Otto von Bismarck, Prussian Chancellor and – after 1871 – the leading political figure of the Second German Empire after the Kaiser, hated to be bullied but managed to manipulate and bully all around him into following his complex strategic plan. This involved not only keeping German democrats at bay but also Denmark, Austria, and France. Tricking Denmark and France into breaking conventions and declaring war on Prussia and its allies respectively, he got the other German states to close ranks and back the Prussian claim for leadership in a newly united German State. By putting Prussia on the defensive, the other European great powers – the United Kingdom and Russia – did not intervene, even though the emergent German superstate changed the balance of powers in Europe. Stopping short of aiming for overseas territories, taking on the role of the honest broker of the quarrels among others, Bismarck avoided pushing Britain and Russia over the brink into coalescing against Germany – which his immoderate successors did not. We are joined by Michael Epkenhans, Beatrice Heuser's successor as Director of Research at the Bundeswehr's Military History Research Office, and specialist on 19th century German and Prussian history.

S6E8: Prioritising Innovation: Creating a Secure and Resilient Ecosystem

Jan 6, 2026 33 min

Innovation has long been a Western strategy, but how can it be made effective against an industrially and economically strong China? Dame Fiona Murray explains. A defining feature of the West's Cold War approach to the Soviet Union was leveraging its technological and economic advantages, including through 'offset strategies'. While defence innovation remains a pillar of Western security, its focus has shifted toward dual-use technologies, reflecting a broader move of the locus of innovation from states to private industry. However, just as earlier episodes in Season 5 explored (Episodes 10 and 11 regarding US industrial mobilisation during the Second World War, and Jean Monnet's plans for European post-war cooperation), success requires many actors coming together to create a resilient ecosystem. Achieving this demands alignment by all parties. Professor Dame Fiona Murray is the Chair of the NATO Innovation Fund and William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She advises the UK Government and sits on the European Innovation Council Joint Expert Group. Her work is published widely in Science, Nature, American Journal of Sociology, Organisation Science and the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation. Her most recent book Accelerating Innovation: Competitive Advantage through Ecosystem Engagement, (MIT Press, 2025) is with Phil Budden. Further Reading Phil Budden and Fiona Murray, Accelerating Innovation: Competitive Advantage through Ecosystem Engagement, MIT Press, 2025. Edlyn V. Levine and Fiona Murray, How the US and its allies can rebuild economic security, in MIT Technology Review, 30 July 2024. Stefan Raff, Fiona E. Murray, and Martin Murmann, Why You Should Tap Innovation at Deep-Tech Startups, in MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2024. Gene Keselman and Fiona Murray, Dual-use is a Strategy, Not a Category (Nor a Trap), War on the Rocks, 2 January 2025.

S6E7: Strategic Transformation of the Army: General Sir Nigel Bagnall

Dec 16, 2025 33 min

The National Army Museum's Justin Maciejewski reveals how General Bagnall's far-reaching reforms transformed the British Army for war against the USSR. By the 1980s, General (later Field Marshal) Sir Nigel Bagnall GCB CVO MC and bar (1927-2002) felt that British Army was ill-prepared for the fight against the Soviets. He pinpointed shortcomings such as the lack of conventional mass, the right doctrine and a personnel skills gap. Moreover, British plans did not fit with the allied armies on either flank. Bagnall sought to transform the Army and integrate it within a broader NATO approach involving changing nuclear and conventional postures, most notably the Air-Land Battle. Commissioned as an infantry officer, Bagnall was schooled in counter-insurgency warfare in Palestine, Malaya, Cyprus and Indonesia-Malaysia before becoming an armour commander in West Germany. As Chief of the General Staff, he steered many of the reforms he had initiated when commanding the British Army of the Rhine, changing the face of the Army and leaving it better prepared for war in Europe. According to Justin Maciejewski, the reforms made Bagnall the most consequential officer since the Second World War. Justin Maciejewski DSO MBE spent 27 years in the British Army before becoming a management consultant for McKinsey and then moving to the National Army Museum in London. He draws on his experience serving in the Army through the Bagnall reforms, and his time as a consultant overseeing commercial transformation programmes. Further Reading Justin Maciejewski, How the British Army's Operations Went Agile, McKinsey Quarterly, October 2019. Alexander Alderson, Influence, the Indirect Approach and Manoeuvre, RUSI Journal Vol.157:1, 2012, pp. 36-43. Ben Barry, Rise and Fall of the British Army 1975-2025, Osprey, 2025. Army, Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 01, Operations, 1994. Beatrice Heuser: NATO, Britain, France and the FRG: Nuclear Strategies and Forces for Europe, 1949-2000 (London:...

S6E6: Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson: Building a Warrior Culture

Dec 2, 2025 34 min

Admiral Nelson instilled in his sailors a martial spirit that in many battles saw them prevail against superior odds. Dr Martin Robson discusses Nelson's legacy with us. Widely considered one of the greatest admirals, alongside Admiral Yi Sun-sin, (Season 4, Episode 6) - Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805) advised: 'No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of an enemy'. His legacy is multi-faceted, but in this episode, we seek to explore his leadership style, which might today be seen as pre-empting mission command, and his ability to create a warrior culture that delivered victory. Dr Martin Robson helps us explore how Nelson instilled this culture and what lessons in leadership remain for us today. Dr Robson is an associate professor at the University of Exeter Strategy and Security Institute, specialising in the use of history and strategic theory of the past for today. He is also a member of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy. He holds a PhD from the Department of War Studies, King's College London, and has experience working at the United Kingdom Defence Academy. He is the author of two volumes in the prestigious A History of the Royal Navy series, covering the Napoleonic Wars (2014) and the Seven Years War (2015), published by IB Taurus. Further Reading Martin Robson, A History of the Royal Navy: Napoleonic Wars, IB Taurus, 2014. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Power, Little Brown, 1899. Available at: https://archive.org/details/lifeofnelsonembo01maha John Sugden, Nelson: A Dream of Glory, 1758-1797, Random House, 2005. Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command, John Murray, 1996.

S6E5: Strategy Amidst Complexity: Gen.(retd) Lori Robinson

Nov 18, 2025 35 min

A former four-star combatant commander, General (retd) Lori Robinson, discusses the challenges of strategy making and strategic leadership in a complex environment. After 37 years of military service, Gen. Robinson retired in 2018 as commander of the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). This double role required her to report to both the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada. Consequently, her tenure involved directly addressing strategic challenges to the US posed by both China and Russia. She was the first woman in US history to lead a combatant command. Having operated in environments of political and interagency complexity, she discusses the lessons she learned about being a successful strategic leader, working with politicians, government departments, business leaders and allied militaries. Having retired in 2018, General Robinson is now a non-resident Senior Fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and is a director on the KornFerry Board. She was named as one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People'; in 2016 and one of its 'First Women Leaders' in 2017.

S6E4: US Cold War Endgame Strategy: Zbigniew Brzezinski, with Edward Luce

Nov 4, 2025 32 min

Edward Luce discusses how Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Carter, sought to bring down the USSR and end the Cold War by magnifying the Politburo' dilemmas. During the Cold War, two dominant émigré figures emerged in United States national security strategy making: Henry Kissinger (Republican) and Zbigniew Brzezinski (Democrat). Zbigniew Brzezinski played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, later serving as Carter's National Security Advisor. Often described as the realist 'Yin' to Carter's idealistic 'Yang,' Brzezinski was a trusted confidant of the President. However, his often-hawkish foreign policy stance created tensions within the Democratic Party and led to challenging relationships with colleagues in the State Department and Department of Defence. His efforts to bring down the Soviet Union earned the admiration of Ronald Reagan, whose Republican administration continued many of Brzezinski's policies. The consequences of some of these policies, though, caused problems later. Edward Luce is the North America Editor of the Financial Times. He published a recent biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski that sought to reclaim Brzezinski's reputation as a leading architect of the strategy that brought the Cold War to an end without it becoming hot. Further Reading Edward Luce, Zbig. The life of Zbig Brzezinski: America's great power prophet (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2025). Zbigniew Brzezinski, Strategic Vision; American and the Crisis of Global Power, Basic Books, 2012, available at: https://archive.org/details/strategicvisiona0000brze Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, Basic Books, 1997, available at: https://archive.org/details/grandchessboarda00brze_0/mode/2up Zbigniew Brzezinski, Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century, Collier Books, 1993, available at: https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolglob00brze/mode/2u...

S6E3: Lord Mervyn King: Effective Strategy for Radical Uncertainty

Oct 21, 2025 41 min

Can clear Ends exist in a radically uncertain world? Lord Mervyn King explains how to align Ways and Means without them. Successive national security and defence reviews in recent years have adjusted their language about the nature of the world, moving from being one of competition, to uncertainty, to today's 'radical uncertainty'. Is the concept simply being used to justify the new review and differentiate it from the last one, or does it reflect a real change in the challenges nations confront? Have we moved beyond VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), to BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible) and does it matter? And what does it mean for our approach to making strategy? To guide us through these questions, we are joined by Baron Mervyn King of Lothbury KG. An economist by training, he graduated from both Cambridge and Harvard Universities, after time as an academic he became the Bank of England's chief economist. Between 2003-1013, he served as its Governor, where he was responsible for the United Kingdom's economic strategy during the 2008 global financial crisis. An accomplished academic, thinker and author, his book Radical Uncertainty with Professor John Kay considers the implications for decision making of this radical uncertainty. Further Reading John Kay and Mervyn King, Radical Uncertainty: Decision-making for an Unknowable Future, Bridge Street Press, 2020. Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler, The Decision Book: Fifty models for strategic thinking, Profile Books, 2023. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan, Penguin, 2007. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Random House, 2006.

S6E2: Europe's Security: Squeezed Between Russia and the US?

Oct 7, 2025 39 min

Dr Fiona Hill, one of the lead reviewers on the UK's 2025 Strategic Defence Review, discusses an expansive approach to defence and security for the modern world. Dr Hill, who served the first Trump administration as a Russia expert, brings deep insights into Russian, American and British defence policy making. Having identified Russia's obsession with recovering the old Tsarist Empire's borderlands, and anticipated Putin's strategic use of economic power to create dependencies in the 1990s, she sheds light on the thinking of Presidents Putin and Trump, and what is now needed by societies used to a peace dividend. She also explains the challenges faced by the drafters of the UK's Strategic Defence Review, with limited means available to respond to a transformed international environment, with Russia an enemy, and the USA now an economic rival and a less reliable ally. Dr Hill is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and Chancellor of Durham University in the UK. She is on Harvard University's Board of Overseers, from where she gained her doctorate in history and was a Frank Knox Fellow. She co-authored Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2013) and The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold (2003), both with Clifford Gaddy. She has been appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George by the UK and Knight First Class of Finland's Order of the Lion.

S6E1: Project Solarium: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Approach to Strategy Making

Sep 23, 2025 33 min

Often touted as the gold standard in national security strategy making, 1953's Project Solarium was President Eisenhower's way of developing a strategy to counter Soviet expansionism. With frequent current calls for a new Project Solarium, was the original project a versatile solution or was it particular to Eisenhower's presidency? Professor Walter Hudson explains. By 1947 relations with the Soviet Union were viewed in Washington as an ideological tug-of-war that could only be won by one side. After the initial strategy of Containment had been crafted under President Truman, the US and its NATO allies massively increased defence spending once the Korean War broke out, fearing a series of further acts of Communist aggression. By mid-1953, however, Stalin was dead, the Korean War at its end, while the cost to the US of the Containment strategy adopted in 1950 was becoming unbearable. With Project Solarium President Eisenhower initiated a rethink not only of what American strategy should be, but also how that strategy was made and understood by his Administration. Professor Walter M. Hudson from the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., guides us through the process adopted in 1953. A former US Army officer, he served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Panama, Korea and Germany, and holds a PhD in military history from Kansas State University. He is the author of Solarium at 70: Project Solarium's Influence on Eisenhower Historiography and National Security Strategy, published in 2023 by the National Defense University.

S5E21: Hero of a Thousand Faces - Reflections on Strategy and Leadership

Jul 29, 2025 32 min

Beatrice and Paul reflect on the lessons for strategy-making and strategy-delivery from their conversations with and about strategic leaders in earlier episodes. Previous sessions of Talking Strategy have explored the activities of great strategic leaders and commanders from around the world. In this final episode of the current season, Paul and Beatrice reflect on past conversations and try to identify what lessons might be drawn about strategic leadership and how that shapes the way strategy is made and delivered. While the concept of strategic leadership itself is contested, this episode draws out some consistent themes from earlier episodes. Based around the concept of strategic leadership as a fundamentally human endeavour, Beatrice and Paul explore how strategy is developed by understanding and shaping the external environment, by mobilising the resources available within the enterprise the leader controls, and by ensuring the internal culture encourages commitment from all. Strategic leaders play an important role in making sense of the world around them, setting the direction for their organisation and mobilising it in delivering the strategy. But delivery depends on sometimes thousands of others investing their talents in ensuring the strategy's success. So, while individual strategic leaders, in all their diversity, often appear as heroes, they represent thousands of others too. Join Beatrice and Paul as they try to distil lessons from the greats covered by this podcast series and what we might take away to help liberate the talent of our own organisations to succeed.

S5E20: The Primacy of Culture and Leadership in Strategic Success, with Khoi Tu

Jul 16, 2025 43 min

Genuine transformation goes beyond structural and process reform. KornFerry's Khoi Tu discusses the crucial role of leadership and culture in strategy making and delivery. In this episode we consider how strategy works in the commercial world. Ranging across a number of commercial sectors, Khoi Tu talks about the similarities and differences in strategy between defence and industry. Some elements, such as an ever-changing and competitive environment are shared, placing a premium on the right leadership and culture. But there are also differences. He describes how all strategy is fundamentally about choices - choices about how one can win, how to instil a sense of purpose, and how to mobilise the team and make them adaptive to the environment. He also highlights how hard it is to find everything an organisation needs from a strategic leader in one individual, but asserts that taking a collective view yields better results - as Dr Christian Keller also argued when looking at the command teams led by Generals Lee and Grant (Season 4, Episode 15). Khoi Tu is a senior partner at KornFerry Consultants, advising leadership boards in world-leading organisations. The author of Superteams: The Secrets of Stellar Performance from Seven Legendary Teams, his research covered the UK Special Forces, charities, and the arts and business sectors.

S5E19: Thucydides: A Revolution in Strategic Thinking

Jul 1, 2025 33 min

Thucydides set the 'gold standard' for a strategic analysis of war with his history of the Peloponnesian War: Dr Roel Konijnendijk explains how. Thucydides, who lived almost two-and-a-half millennia ago, revolutionised strategic analysis by asserting the place of human agency rather than attributing events as being shaped by Gods or fate. This is something that Machiavelli repeats centuries later in The Prince. Thucydides claimed to have identified patterns of strategic behaviour that he thought would be enacted 'as long as human nature is the same'. A fascinating question, however, is whether strategists have behaved according to these patterns because they have been inspired to do so by reading Thucydides, or did he truly discover patterns of behaviour that endure throughout time and space? Are modern scholars projecting their own strategic world views into Ancient Greece or has our Ancient Greek heritage determined how we see the world? Finally, did Thucydides think that a world in which 'the strong do what they will and the weak have to put up with it' is the only possible one? Dr Roel Konijnendijk is the Derby Fellow of Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. After his PhD from University College London, he held several prestigious research fellowships and taught ancient history at UCL, Birkbeck, Warwick, Oxford, and Edinburgh. He is the author of Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History (2018) and Between Miltiades and Moltke: Early German Studies in Greek Military History (2022) as well as co-editor of Brill's Companion to Greek Land Warfare Beyond the Phalanx (2021).

S5E18: George C Marshall: Strategic Planning for War and Peace

Jun 17, 2025 35 min

General Marshall planned brilliantly for the US Army's rapid wartime growth and a 'Just Peace' for post-war Europe. Professor Bill Johnsen explains how. General George C Marshall's (1880-1959) career as a strategist and strategic leader was impressive. As the Chief of Staff for the US Army, he oversaw a forty-fold increase in the size of the Army. Quick to spot talent and advance it out of turn, his appointments included Generals Omar Bradley, Lesley J McNair, George S Patton, and perhaps most crucially, Dwight D Eisenhower. Winston Churchill described Marshall as 'the organiser of victory' After the War, he was appointed as Secretary of State, where he lobbied for the reconstruction of Europe that would build the capacity of nations exhausted by the War, and act as a bulwark against Soviet expansion. The European Reconstruction Plan, which would eventually become simply the 'Marshall Plan', earned him the unique distinction of being the only Army General to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Professor William (Bill) Johnsen is the former Director of Academics at the US Army War College, and a former Infantry Officer. He served in NATO working on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and the 1991 NATO Strategy. He is the author of numerous works, including Origins of the Grand Alliance: Anglo-American Military Collaboration from the Panay Incident to Pearl Harbor (University Press of Kentucky, 2016), and his latest manuscript, tentatively entitled War Councilors: The Combined Chiefs of Staff and the Winning of World War II, is under publication review.

S5E17: Giuseppe Garibaldi: 'The Only Hero the World Needs'

Jun 3, 2025 33 min

Professor Lucy Riall explains Garibaldi's mastery of revolutionary war by harnessing military, political and populist levers of power to become a father of modern Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) was one of the world's greatest revolutionaries, leading resistance movements with irregular armies such as the Ragamuffins and the Red Shirts in Latin America and Europe. A crucial figure of 19th century liberalism and nationalism, he inspired millions. Che Guevara claimed that he was the only hero the world needs. As one of the fathers of modern Italy, Garibaldi was the Risorgimento's Sword, to Count Cavour's Brain and Giuseppe Mazzini's Soul. Untrained as a soldier and often over-matched by his opponents, he nevertheless achieved victories against the French and Austrian Armies, the Papal States and in Sicily. Perhaps as impressively, he maintained the effectiveness of irregular forces in numerous retreats that might, under a lesser commander, have lost the morale of his citizen fighters against professional armies. Historian AJP Taylor described Garibaldi thus: 'He evoked from the people, and even from the politicians, a personal devotion almost without parallel in modern history; . . . and he showed himself the greatest general that Italy has ever produced.' Professor Lucy Riall is a leading expert on modern Italy. She has written extensively on Italy's formation, as well as on Giuseppe Garibaldi. She is currently at the European University institute in Florence and a Visiting Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan.

S5E16: Cyrus the Great: Inventing Empire and Universal Monarchy

May 13, 2025 33 min

Cyrus' exemplary leadership forged a patchwork of ethnicities into an empire that founded Persian rule in the Middle East, Professor Lynette Mitchell explains. Cyrus the Great (or the Elder) is known to many through the Cyrus Cylinder exhibit preserved in the British Museum, which tells us that he was chosen by God for his special virtues to become 'king of the four corners of the world'.[1] Indeed, he created a Persian empire that extended from the Greek communities of Asia Minor to the marches of India. Ever since, virtues of a great strategic leader have been attributed to him, including by Xenophon who, as a Greek, might have been expected to be hostile to Cyrus' expansion. Instead, Xenophon took him as a model for the ideal leader in war and peace. Even today, the stories of his leadership are revered in management literature. But does the reality justify the acclaim? Professor Lynette Mitchell of the University of Exeter has discovered her interest in the life and achievements of Cyrus from her earlier research on Greek culture and customs, on which she has published widely. Her book, Cyrus the Great: A Biography of Kingship, was published by Routledge in 2023. [1] Irving Finkel (ed.): The Cyrus Cylinder: The King of Persia's Proclamation from Ancient Babylon. (London: I-.B- Tauris, 2013)

S5E15: And then what? Thinking Strategy, with Baroness Ashton of Upholland

Apr 29, 2025 42 min

Baroness Catherine Ashton, formerly the European Union's lead for foreign and security strategy, discusses challenges, opportunities and tips for collaborative strategy-making. As the EU's first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Ashton was at the heart of international strategy making between 2009 and 2014 working on some of the world's most intractable problems. She was appointed by the UN Security Council to lead the P5+1 negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran and was in post when Russia first invaded Ukraine, seizing Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014. She also led peace negotiations in the Western Balkans between Serbia and Kosovo, for which she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In this episode, she reflects on strategy-making in an international and supranational context, the challenges facing Europe today and how 'false binaries' – such as those that posit the EU and NATO as being in opposition – stifle effective strategy elaboration. She argues that strategy makers need preparedness of thought and action, the ability to ground their ambition both in reality but also in individual and organisational values, as well as the will to ask, and respond to, the key question of any adaptive strategy, 'And then what?'. In an illustrious career, The Rt Hon The Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland LG GCMG PC was a minister, Leader of the House of Lords, the UK's first female Commissioner in the European Union and the High Representative and First Vice President for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in the Barroso Commission establishing the European External Action Service as a major actor in international affairs.

S5E14: Abdul Haris Nasution: Insurgent Founder of the Indonesian Army

Apr 15, 2025 28 min

General Nasution's journey from insurgent to Army commander and strategist fighting against communist insurgents in Indonesia is described by Colonel Dr Almuchalif Suryo. Trained by the Dutch as part of the Netherlands East Indies Army, General Abdel Haris Nasution (1918-2000) fought with them against the Japanese during the Second World War and then against them for Indonesian independence. Having become an expert guerilla commander, he was then charged with creating Indonesia's state army, a force that had to unite elements trained by the Dutch and the Japanese, as well as citizen soldiers. One of the first tasks of this new army was to counter a communist insurgency in which Nasution himself was a target. Narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his 8-year old daughter, he fell afoul of Indonesia's politics and was removed from post by President Sukarno. Nasution was rehabilitated under President Suharto before the two fell out. Towards the end of Nasution's life, they reconciled, and Nasution became one of only three five-star generals in Indonesia's history. Colonel Dr Almuchalif Suryo was an infantry officer in the Indonesian Army, where he was the school commander of the Combatant Training Centre and Head of Total War Study at the Republic of Indonesia Defence University. Now retired, he still lectures there. He speaks to us in a personal capacity. FURTHER READING Abdul Haris Nasution, Fundamentals of Guerrilla Warfare, Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. Abdul Haris Nasution, Towards a People's Army, Djakarta cv Delegasi, 1964. C.L.M. Penders and Ulf Sundhaussen, Abdul Haris Nasution: a political biography, University of Queensland Press, 1985. Almuchaif Suryo, The Dual Function of the Indonesian Armed Forces and the Concept of Citizen Soldiery, Norwich University, 1999.

S5E13: Modernising the Royal Navy: Admiral Lord Fisher RN

Apr 1, 2025 30 min

Admiral John (Jacky) Fisher radically transformed the Royal Navy in terms of its people, doctrine, equipment and structures. Dr Richard Dunley explains how. Few service chiefs have had such a profound effect on their service as Admiral of the Fleet, Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, Chief of the British Royal Navy in 1904-1910, and again in 1914-1915, before resigning in frustration over Churchill's Gallipoli campaign. Joining a wooden-hulled, sail-powered Royal Navy at the age of 13, by the time he retired aged 74, his Service was operating steel-hulled, oil-powered and technologically advanced battleships, with submarine and aviation arms. He was at the forefront of many of these reforms, but his impact went beyond the technology, overseeing profound changes in naval strategy (working alongside Julian Corbett - Season 1, Episode 1), doctrine, force disposition, personnel and training. Like other great strategic leaders, he was adept at shaping the political environment, securing for the Royal Navy the lion's share of the defence budget. Yet his legacy is mixed - his Royal Navy was undoubtedly a stronger, more capable fighting force but, according to our guest, was institutionally damaged and divided, and took some time to recover. Dr Richard Dunley is a senior lecturer in history and maritime strategy at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, where he teaches at the Australian Defence Force Academy. His research focuses on the relationship between navies and technology, with a particular emphasis on the Royal Navy in the early 20th century.

S5E12: Toussaint Louverture and the Strategy of Dynamic Adaptation with Professor Charles Forsdick

Mar 18, 2025 32 min

Professor Charles Forsdick tells the story of Toussaint Louverture, who led Haiti's successful and highly adaptive slave revolt against the 18th century's great powers. Toussaint Loverture was a force of nature. A former slave, he led the revolt in Saint Domingue between 1791– 1802 that resulted in Haitian independence. As a self-taught military commander, he was ever present in the fight, adapting his tactics, employing psychological warfare techniques and harnessing the island's tropical diseases to degrade the French occupying forces. A man of contradictions, he was variously a Spanish monarchist and a French republican who played the great powers of Britain, France, Spain and the United States to secure the space and resources for his revolution to succeed. Despite leading one of the only successful slave revolts in history, he was less successful as a ruler, where the traits that made him such a great military leader, isolated him from his people. Internal divisions within the revolutionary army led to his capture by Napoleon's forces and death in captivity in France a few months before Haiti achieved full independence in 1803. For this reason, the Haitian's know him as 'the Precursor' and reserve the title, 'Liberator', for one of his lieutenants, Dessalines. Professor Charles Forsdick is the Drapers Chair of French at the University of Cambridge. He writes extensively about post-colonial memory in Francophone countries, and is the co-author of Toussaint Louverture, A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolution, with Christian Høgsbjerg published by Pluto Press in 2017.

S5E11: Jean Monnet and the Strategy of International Defence Cooperation

Mar 5, 2025 40 min

Jean-Marc Lieberherr examines Jean Monnet's vital role in securing US arms for Britain and France during the Second World War and in driving international cooperation. A committed internationalist, long before becoming one of the founding fathers of the EU, Jean Monnet played a crucial role in enabling cooperation between countries in two world wars. As a member of the Executive Committee of the Allied Maritime Transport Council during the First World War, he helped coordinate shipping between the Allied powers of France, Great Britain, Italy and, from 1918, the US, before becoming the Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations in 1919. During the subsequent world conflagration, , Monnet, trusted by Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, coordinated arms procurement from the US through the Anglo-French Co-Ordinating Committee, the British Purchasing Committee and the Combined Production and Resources Board. According to economist John Maynard Keynes, Monnet's work shortened that war by one year. After 1945, Monnet continued seeking internationalist solutions, connecting the French and German markets under the European Coal and Steel Community. Seeing how the principles of cooperation could be applied more broadly, he advocated for a European Defence Community during the Korean War. While this attempt at European defence integration failed, his work inspired the founding treaties of the EU. He became the first 'Honorary Citizen of Europe' in 1976. Jean-Marc Lieberherr is the founding chairman of the Jean Monnet Institute (JMI), which is devoted to promoting Monnet's historical heritage. Before creating the JMI in 2021, he had a career with large international groups such as LVMH, Unilever and Rio Tinto. Further Reading Jean Monnet, Memoirs (London: Harper Collins, 1978). François Duchêne, Jean Monnet: The First Statesman of Interdependence (New York, NY: W W Norton, 1994). Robert R Nathan, 'An Unsung Hero of World War II', in Douglas Brinkley and Cli...

Creating Destruction: US Industrial Mobilisation in the Second World War

Feb 18, 2025 32 min

Professor Mark Wilson explains how governments, industry and the military collaborated to forge the US's 'arsenal of democracy' during the Second World War. The prevailing myth is that the miracle of US industrial production was achieved by individual business leaders who were freed from the dead hand of government. The truth is more nuanced. The impressive efforts of business leaders relied on their workforce, government and the military. It was also a truly international effort. French and British orders started before the European war and long before Pearl Harbor, thereby expanding US industrial capacity and providing a springboard for success once the US was mobilised. This episode's guest, Professor Mark Wilson, is an historian from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He specialises in in military-industrial relations and war mobilisations in US history, having written important books on US Civil War mobilisation and the business and politics of US industrial mobilisation for the Second World War.

S5E9: Empress Matilda: Chess Grandmaster of Siege Warfare with Dr Catherine Hanley

Feb 4, 2025 33 min

Fighting for her rightful inheritance of the English crown, Empress Matilda (1110–1125) proved to be a grandmaster in the Anarchy's bloody chess game. The war of dynastic succession in 12th century England and Normandy is known as the Anarchy. (1135-1154). Barons and nobles of all ranks joined in the family quarrel over the succession to Henry I. Matilda, Henry's only surviving legitimate child and widow of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, challenged her cousin and rival Stephen of Blois, who managed to seize the crown. This was a game of chess or chequers, in which seizing castles and fortified towns was what mattered, as well as bringing nobles with their retainers over to one's side. Matilda played astutely but only won when she ceased to pursue the crown for herself and demanded it for her son. She continued as the power behind Henry II's throne from Normandy. This episode's guest, Dr Catherine Hanley, is the author of the latest scholarly biography of Empress Matilda, Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior (Yale University Press, 2019). Holding a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Sheffield, she is the author of several history books.

S5E8: Transforming a Nation: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Jan 21, 2025 34 min

Modern Turkey was forged by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from the Ottoman Empire's collapse. In this episode, Dr Mesut Uyar joins us to discuss Atatürk's legacy of strategic leadership. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the most important Turkish political leader since the Ottoman Empire's expansion was checked at Vienna in 1683. A career officer educated from the age of 12 in military academies – where he excelled, earning the nickname Kemal ('the Perfect') – he saw service in Tripolitania (modern Libya) and the Balkans. He entered the world stage during the First World War, especially for his command of the Ottoman 19th Division defending the Gallipoli peninsula against the Allied forces' landings in 1915–16. His ascent was secured through his command in the war with Greece over the frontiers of the Turkish rump-state in 1919–1922, which ended in a population exchange. His military successes paved the way for his political leadership, which was inspired by French Republican views. He transformed Turkey through a profound programme of modernisation, which earned him a new title, Ata-Türk – father of Turkey. Despite his small stature, he cast a long shadow over Turkey that endures today. Dr Mesut Uyar, our guest for this episode, graduated from the Turkish Military Academy and from Istanbul University (Political Sciences). As a Turkish career military officer twice wounded in action, he served as an instructor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and did several tours for the UN in Georgia and as a staff officer in Afghanistan. He has lectured on Ottoman military history at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, and at Antalya Bilim University. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.

S5E7: H.R. McMaster on National Security Strategy Making

Jan 7, 2025 39 min

H.R. McMaster shares his extensive experience of strategy-making and strategic leadership as a military officer, academic and former United States' national security advisor. 'The Iconoclast General', H.R. McMaster has a distinguished record serving his country. Commissioned from West Point into the armoured cavalry, he retired as a Lieutenant General after thirty-four years' service, including operational service in Iraq and Afghanistan. His success in fighting counter-insurgency campaigns saw him involved in the development of the United States' Army and Marine Corps' counter-insurgency field manual (FM3-24). One of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in April 2014, he was described by Lieutenant General (retired) David Barno as 'the 21st century Army's pre-eminent warrior-thinker'. Appointed by President Trump, H.R. McMaster served as the 25th National Security Advisor between February 2017 to March 2018. His account of his time in the White House is described with typical balance and candour in At War With Ourselves. Consultation, bringing top leaders together and getting them to thrash out what the problem is and what one should do about it, and then to issue directives to a (sometimes) reluctant bureaucracy, that was his recipe. In this episode, he describes how the National Security Strategy of 2017 was negotiated during his time in office, the methodology, some of its main tenets, and how it was translated into policy making. And how an historical perspective offers lessons and consolation today. A historian by training, he has a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the flaws and inadequacies of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War, and now lectures at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He hosts the podcast series Battlegrounds: Vital Perspectives on Today's Challenges and is a regular on GoodFellows, both of which are produced by the Hoover Institution. He is a Distinguished University Fellow at Arizona State Un...

Trenchard and the Royal Air Force: Creation, Innovation and Power with Dr Harry Raffal

Dec 17, 2024 34 min

The world's first independent air force owes its survival and shape to its 'father', Hugh Trenchard. We explore how with the RAF Museum's Dr Harry Raffal. Described as 'the architect and patron saint of modern air power', Marshal of the RAF Viscount Hugh Trenchard (1873–1956) was the first Chief of the Air Staff (January–April 1918 and 1919–1930). An army officer badly wounded in the Boer War, he was among the first British military pilots and the frontline commander of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. The RAF was formed on 1 April 1918, and Trenchard set firm foundations for its survival and development, often against bitter hostility from the other Services. His administrative skills, realism, tenacity and willingness to be unpopular created an organisation that saved the nation during the Battle of Britain. His friend TE Lawrence (Season 3, Episode 7) argued that 'The RAF is the finest individual effort in history. No other man has been given a blank sheet and told to make a Service from the ground up. It is your single work…' Following retirement from the RAF, Trenchard was appointed as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, where he set about a substantial reform agenda with the same single-mindedness. Dr Harry Raffal is Head of Collections and Research at the RAF Museum. His doctorate, from the University of Hull, explores RAF and Luftwaffe operations during the evacuation of Dunkirk. He is a Committee member of the RAF Historical Society and the British Commission for Military History, and Vice-Chair of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aeronautical Heritage Group.

Santa Cruz De Marcenado - Spain's Clausewitz

Dec 3, 2024 30 min

The 3rd Marquess of Santa Cruz de Marcenado (1684–1732), soldier, diplomat and scholar, pioneered humanist ways to prevent or suppress insurgencies in his Military Reflections. In his time, Marcenado was the most widely read Spanish author on war. He drew on his own rich experiences of the Spanish War of Succession to complement his erudition based on existing publications from antiquity to the Age of Enlightenment. In a work comprising 11 volumes, he examined subjects ranging from the ethical question of whether it is right to go to war, to the leadership qualities required in a general, to the merits and dangers of battle or the recruitment of soldiers. Intended as guidance for practitioners, his work set standards in both erudition and the human approach to war. This applies particularly to his thoughts on how to prevent, contain or pacify insurgencies. Marcenado was also a diplomat charged with negotiating on behalf of his kingdom to end the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727. His writing on war thus transcends the merely military, and the greater political dimension behind it can already be discerned. Dr Pelayo Fernández García of the University of Oviedo – our guest for this episode – is the greatest living expert on this Spanish thinker and practitioner, whose ideas are strikingly modern even for our times.

Turning Around a Defeated Army: Field Marshall William Slim, with Dr Robert Lyman MBE

Nov 19, 2024 36 min

Voted Britain's 'greatest general' by the National Army Museum in 2011, 'Uncle Bill' Slim led the XIVth Army from defeat to victory. Dr Robert Lyman tells us about Slim's strategic leadership. Field Marshal William Slim (1891–1970) is famous for transforming troops who had retreated almost 1,000 miles through Burma pursued by the Japanese Army into a force that emerged from the Second World War victorious. Whether in defeat – where his leadership ensured his forces maintained their order and discipline – or in the campaign that led to their victory, his men loved him, giving him the affectionate title 'Uncle Bill'. To have achieved this is all the more remarkable given the diversity of forces under his command. A master of combined and joint warfare, his forces included African, American, British, Chinese, Gurkha and Indian troops, and his ability to integrate air into his campaign predates – but acts as an exemplar for – the relationships needed for the air-land battle. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten stated about our subject that: "Whenever leadership is spoken of or written about, tribute is regularly paid to his supreme qualities as the finest leader of fighting men in the Second World War". Our guest, Dr Robert Lyman MBE, agrees with this; he is a former officer in the British Army and a renowned author. His books include a biography of William Slim – Slim, Master of War (Constable & Robinson, 2004); a record of the Battle of Kohima (Kohima, 1944, published by Osprey Press, 2010); and, with General Lord Richard Dannatt, Victory to Defeat (Osprey, 2023). Dr Lyman is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Katsu Kaishū and the Foundations of the Modern Japanese Navy

Nov 5, 2024 33 min

In this episode we discuss Admiral Katsu Kaishū's transformation of the modern Japanese navy into a force that defeated the Russians in 1905. For 200 years, Japan was largely isolated from the world. By the 19th century, as countries in Europe and North America were expanding into its neighbourhood, Japan's military capability had atrophied. In response, the Tokugawa Shogunate created a navy in 1853 and Katsu became a naval officer. Trained by the Dutch, he became an expert in Western gunnery and commanded the Kanrin Maru on the first deployment of a Japanese warship to a Western port. There he could observe how a Western navy worked – ideas he brought back to Japan as the basis for the modern Japanese Navy. By 1867, under the Meiji government, he was responsible for overseeing the Navy's transition from sail to steam technology. He introduced profound changes to the Navy's organisation, strategy and tactics, including shore-based defences, harbours, shipyards and human resource systems that allowed access to the talent needed by a more technological service. Ultimately, the foundations he laid helped the Japanese defeat the Russian Navy at the battle of Tsushima in 1905. Commander Dr Hiroyuki Kanazawa, our first guest for this episode, serves in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, and his PhD examines the Japanese Navy in the Late Tokugawa Period (1853–1868). Dr Haruo Tohmatsu, our other participant, is Professor of Diplomatic and War History at the National Defense Academy. His PhD in Politics and International Relations is from the University of Oxford. He has published numerous works in English, including Pearl Harbor (London: Cassell, 2001) and World War Zero: The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Radical Reform of the US Marine Corps: General Alfred Mason Gray

Oct 22, 2024 28 min

Lieutenant General George Flynn describes how his friend and former boss General Gray, the 29th Commandant, transformed the US Marine Corps' warfighting, ethos and capabilities. General Alfred Mason Gray Jnr (1928–2024) was not the most obvious choice to lead the US Marine Corps when he became its 29th Commandant in 1987, but he succeeded in transforming the Corps into one of the world's premier fighting forces. He moved the Corps' culture and ethos towards one that prioritised manoeuvre warfare, in which all Marines became warfighters first and foremost. His changes included new processes and equipment, but were primarily focused on the human – a conceptual transformation as much as it was a transformation of capabilities. He embraced the indirect approach from Basil Liddell Hart (Season 2 Episode 10) and John Boyd (Season 1 Episode 7), as well as William Lind's thinking on dislocating adversary decision-making that was so effective in the 1991 Gulf War, yet he situated these inside the Marine Corps' traditions and values. Lieutenant General George Flynn (retd) served in the US Marine Corps for 38 years, including as General Gray's aide in 1989–1991, as Chief of Staff at Special Operations Command and as Deputy Commander Multinational Corps Iraq, and created the Joint Force Development Directorate at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Now on the Board of Regents at the Potomac Institute, he is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

S5E1: Leading a Defence Startup: NATO's First Secretary General, Lord Ismay

Oct 8, 2024 32 min

NATO's first Secretary General, Hastings Ismay, profoundly shaped today's Alliance. Join us to discuss his legacy with his latest biographer, Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely. Hastings (Pug) Ismay was a general who never commanded beyond lieutenant colonel, rising through the ranks as a staff officer. This brought him into contact with politicians, like Churchill, and senior military commanders such as General Eisenhower, with whom he formed an enduring friendship. After retirement from the Army, Ismay briefly became a minister before serving as NATO Secretary General, 1952-1957. His time in office saw many challenges - the Soviet invasion of Hungary, Suez, the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64 and the death of Stalin. Steering NATO through these crises required judgement, patience and humility. His legacy is that of NATO with a strong central headquarters connecting its political and military dimensions, and organisation with a global security perspective and a Secretary General who remains the servant of the Alliance. Our guest this episode, Lieutenant General Sir John Kiszely , served in the British Army for 40 years, including in the 1982 Falklands War for which he was awarded the Military Cross, in Bosnia and Iraq. His book 'Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway 1940' won RUSI's inaugural Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History. His latest book, 'General Hastings 'Pug' Ismay: Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat' was published in 2024.

Strategy's Human Dimension, with Baroness Neville-Jones

Apr 9, 2024 34 min

To conclude Season Four of Talking Strategy, we talk to long-serving diplomat, policy adviser and politician The Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones. With intimate experience of the functioning of governments and the EU, Lady Neville-Jones compares the respective organisational cultures and human side of strategy, drawing on lessons from her career. Pauline Neville-Jones joined the British diplomatic service in 1963. She was posted in places as varied as Rhodesia, Singapore, Bonn, Washington and the European Commission. From the 1990s onwards her postings were specifically concerned with defence matters. She was head of the Defence and Overseas Secretariat of the Cabinet Office from 1991 to 1994, and during that time she also chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee. Subsequently, she was Political Director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until 1996, and in that capacity negotiated the 1995 Dayton Agreement on Bosnia on behalf of the UK. In the final episode of this season, Lady Neville-Jones reflects on the success of the Dayton Agreement: was it 'good enough'? Was anything better in the offing? And on relations with Russia: did the West 'lose' Moscow in the 1990s? Tune in to hear her advice to practitioners.

Moshe Dayan, Master of Emergent Strategy? With Professor Eitan Shamir

Mar 26, 2024 31 min

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) is a controversial figure in Israeli politics. Revered by some as a master strategist, he is criticised by others for his failure to foresee Egypt's attack in 1973, and then for 'giving up' the Sinai in return for a peace treaty. Strategy-making can take two approaches. The first, 'Deliberate Strategy', is formulated and implemented hierarchically and centrally; decisions are taken by the head of the organisation, and detailed plans and instructions are issued to those responsible for implementation. The alternative model, 'Emergent Strategy', is characterised by its flexibility on ends as well as ways and means. This week's guest, Professor Eitan Shamir, is the Director of the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies of Bar Ilan University, argues that Moshe Dayan was a strategist who took the second approach. Professor Shamir is the author of a new biography entitled "Moshe Dayan: The Making of a Strategist" (2023, in Hebrew, and due to be published in English in 2024 by Cambridge University Press) and, with Beatrice, edited Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies: National Styles and Strategic Cultures (CUP, 2017).

Arthur Tedder: A Coalition Strategist of War and Warfare with Air Marshal Edward Stringer

Mar 12, 2024 33 min

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur Tedder was General Eisenhower's Deputy as Supreme Commander for Operation Overlord during the Second World War. A quiet and thoughtful leader, Tedder understood the difference between war and warfare and carefully orchestrated his campaigns – including the transportation plan concerning D-Day – in an alliance context to great effect. Tedder's strategic leadership can be characterised as understated and thoughtful, underpinned by his ability to manage relationships with allies and experts to get the most from each. He also understood the importance of waging war economically in a way that exploited logistics capacity as a critical enabler for his own forces and as a means of weakening his enemies. Despite the Allied victory, after the Second World War he recognised the weaknesses that loomed. This week's guest, Air Marshal Edward Stringer, was the air component commander for NATO's operation in Libya in 2011, the Director of Operations in the UK Ministry of Defence and the UK liaison officer to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. In his last role, he was Director General Joint Force Development. Since retirement, he has become an expert commentator and writer on defence, defence strategy and air power.

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S7E4: The Dangers of Strategic Fashion: Dr Chiara Libiseller

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Podcast details

Created by: Royal United Services Institute
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 3, 2026
Episodes: 105
Release period: Every two weeks
Avg. episode length: 33 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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