School of War

Afleveringen

1. Sweden’s Secret Army

   23 oktober 2026 · 49 min

   Afspelen
   Sweden joined NATO in 2024. What took them so long? Historian Johan Wennström, author of The Stay Behinds: Sweden’s Cold War Guardians, joins Aaron MacLean to uncover how Sweden secretly collaborated with NATO for decades while remaining publicly neutral for fear the Soviet Union would invade Finland if they did. With Russia threatening Europe again, Wennström discusses the history of Sweden’s balancing act, how it built an army of sleeper cells, and whether NATO membership risks giving countries a false sense of security. Lees meer

   03:13 The Soviet Threat

   08:00 Was Sweden Neutral?

   15:52 Sweden in World War II

   20:10 Sweden’s Military Might

   20:50 Building the Resistance

   25:11 Legalizing a Secret Army

   28:35 Soviet Invasion Plans

   33:05 The Resistance Leaders

   37:09 Is Europe Prepared?

   41:09 Was NATO a Mistake?

   42:41 The Case for Deterrence

   44:29 Preparing for Defeat

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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2. Can Ukraine Win Without America?

   19 oktober 2026 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   Russia is losing ground in eastern Ukraine and suffering mounting casualties. So why is the White House handing Vladimir Putin a lifeline? Retired Australian Army major general Mick Ryan, author of the newsletter Futura Doctrina, joins Aaron MacLean to examine the links between the Iran war and Ukraine, and explains why Ukraine’s battlefield successes aren’t translating into political advantage. Putin’s best hope, Ryan argues, is getting Donald Trump on his side: “He’s tried everything else and it hasn’t worked.” Could Washington give Putin what his army can’t? Lees meer

   03:07 Ukraine and Iran

   05:58 Putin’s American Lifeline

   08:04 Rising Diesel Prices

   11:22 Ukraine’s Starlink Dependence

   13:30 Satellite Speed Limits

   18:00 Russia’s Jet-Powered Drones

   19:40 Ukraine Without America

   22:34 Stalled Peace Talks

   25:39 Economic Warfare Against Iran

   31:08 Ukraine’s Counteroffensive

   36:40 Adapting on the Battlefield

   39:14 China’s Lessons From War

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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3. The Making of Xi Jinping

   16 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 7 min

   Afspelen
   During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party purged Xi Jinping’s father and subjected him to 16 years of persecution and imprisonment—so how did the current president of China emerge more devoted to the party than ever? “It’s like a comic book villain origin story,” says Aaron MacLean. Today, Joseph Torigian, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, joins School of War to explore the strange and dark story of China’s current president, the brutality of Mao’s China, and how it all shaped the power dynamics in Beijing today. Lees meer

   03:24 – The Xi Family and Communist Loyalty

   08:14 – Why Xi Jinping Never Abandoned the Party

   10:05 – China's Revolutionary Origins

   13:23 – The Books That Shaped Xi Jinping

   18:34 – Why China Embraced Communism

   22:13 – Xi Zhongxun's Rise and Near-Execution

   29:21 – Mao's Loyalty Test

   35:30 – The Great Leap Forward and Famine

   45:14 – Xi Jinping's Brutal Childhood

   47:38 – His Father's 16 Years of Persecution

   52:11 – Mao and the Cultural Revolution

   59:17 – The Xi Family's Tragedy

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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4. When, Not If: The Baltics Prepare for War

   13 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 4 min

   Afspelen
   In the Baltics, war with Russia is no abstraction. Putin could take Lithuania’s capital if he achieved surprise, the nation’s army commander told Aaron MacLean. This week, Aaron travels through Lithuania and Latvia to speak with Brigadier General Nerijus Stankevičius, Lithuanian defense Minister Robertas Kaunas, and Latvian foreign minister Baiba Braže about why Lithuania is amending its constitution to allow weapons of mass destruction on its soil, what schoolchildren are learning in their war-preparedness exercises, and what each country is doing now to make sure they’re ready if war comes. Lees meer

   02:58 — Brig. Gen. Nerijus Stankevičius

   04:25 — Russia Could Take Vilnius

   06:03 — How Lithuania Would Fight

   09:58 — “Never Again”

   14:14 — Robertas Kaunas, Lithuania’s Defense Strategy

   17:28 — Drones, AI & the Eastern Flank

   22:31 — Nuclear Deterrence

   23:58 — Preparing the Whole Country

   29:16 — A Message to Putin

   31:29 — Baiba Braže, Latvia on the Front Line

   36:12 — Drones Over Latvia

   37:28 — Joining Latvia’s National Guard

   40:30 — Russia’s “Sub-Conventional” War

   48:46 — What If Russia Wins in Ukraine?

   55:54 — Can Russia Be Pressured Into Peace?

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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5. Rebuilding America’s War Machine

   9 oktober 2026 · 50 min

   Afspelen
   America is running low on munitions, its shipyards can’t keep pace, and the materials its weapons depend on too often run through China. Michael Cadenazzi is the Pentagon official charged with turning that around, putting billions of dollars behind the factories, materials, and supply chains that make America’s military power possible. He joins School of War to explain how the Pentagon plans to ramp up weapons production, attract private investment, and break decades of bad habits in how the Pentagon does business. Cadenazzi is confident America can still mobilize its industrial might for a major war, but he warns that waiting until the shooting starts would be “way more expensive in blood and treasure.” The race to rearm is on, and the question is whether America can win it before the next great-power war begins. Lees meer

   03:40 – America's Industrial Decline

   06:15 – Dependence on China

   09:12 – Pentagon Spending

   12:40 – Rare Earth Production

   16:59 – Defense Supply Chains

   20:41 – Weapons Manufacturing

   23:26 – High-End Weapons vs. Mass

   28:01 – Blood and Treasure

   31:56 – Private Investment

   34:58 – Outproducing China

   41:29 – Pentagon Equity Stakes

   45:00 – Managing Investments

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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6. What Happened Inside Russia’s Plague Lab?

   8 oktober 2026 · 36 min

   Afspelen
   A young researcher in Siberia has died under mysterious circumstances, raising questions about a potential lab leak. Russia won’t say how it happened. Marshall Billingslea, former Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control, says Moscow has scrubbed news reports, had officials walk back talk of an outbreak, and kept the World Health Organization in the dark. He joins School of War to fill in what the Kremlin won’t, taking us inside Russia’s expanding bioweapons program and the institute at the heart of the mystery, which defectors say ran a covert effort to weaponize the disease and make it resistant to antibiotics. He also explains how Moscow thinks about using these weapons, how China is building a program of its own, and why the most frightening of them pose a risk even nuclear weapons don’t. Lees meer

   2:32 — Mystery at a Russian Plague Lab

   5:29 — Russia’s Bioweapons Program

   7:14 — Weaponizing Plague

   10:39 — How Russia Would Use Bioweapons

   13:01 — Smallpox and Ebola

   15:07 — Controlling the Spread

   16:40 — “Your Vaccines Wouldn’t Have Worked”

   18:20 — A Soviet Bioweapons Defector

   20:30 — Why Bioweapons Bans Are Hard to Verify

   24:58 — Irkutsk and Wuhan

   29:48 — Another Pandemic?

   32:45 — China and North Korea

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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7. Michael Oren: October 7 and the Cost of Defending Israel

   6 oktober 2026 · 45 min

   Afspelen
   Three years after October 7, the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history looms large over the Jewish state’s upcoming election. Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren says whomever takes the helm next is unlikely to “remove a single soldier from Lebanon, from Gaza, from Syria.” Today, Oren joins School of War to discuss Israel’s “80 percent” consensus on national security, why he thinks Hezbollah “cannot be destroyed militarily,” and the deepening political divide between religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews over the Jewish state’s future. Lees meer

   3:33 How October 7 Changed Israel

   8:54 The Ultra-Orthodox Draft Fight

   13:52 Israel’s Election and the Draft

   17:17 Why the Ultra-Orthodox Don’t Serve

   19:17 Oren's Path to the IDF

   24:45 How Israel Defeated Hezbollah

   26:50 Israel’s New Security Consensus

   29:58 Can Iran Survive the Blockade?

   32:40 What Comes Next in Gaza?

   34:52 Hunting the October 7 Terrorists

   37:02 Why Michael Oren Chose Israel

   41:11 What Happens if Iran’s Regime Falls?

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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8. What the Dutch Empire Reveals About America Today

   2 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 3 min

   Afspelen
   How do you fight a superpower you can’t afford to stop trading with? The Dutch faced that problem at the start of the 17th century in their war against Spain, and their answer was the Dutch West India Company, a business built to wage war. Alexander Bick, a historian who served on the National Security Council under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, joins School of War to discuss his new book, Minutes of Empire. He explains how the company helped secure Dutch independence and why the Dutch kept trading with Spain while fighting it, taxing certain exports to “plow that money back into the military,” and what that reveals about America’s tangled relationship with China. All of which raises a question about Donald Trump’s foreign policy: Is America reviving an older style of empire? Lees meer

   02:52 — The Rise of the Dutch Republic

   06:25 — How Dutch Trading Companies Began

   09:47 — Shareholder Profits vs. National Strategy

   11:59 — Who Invested in the Company?

   14:33 — Challenging Spain in the New World

   19:19 — The Costs of Conquering Brazil

   22:49 — Who Ran the West India Company?

   31:58 — Business Failure, Strategic Success

   39:36 — The Dutch Legacy in Britain

   43:16 — America and Trading with the Enemy

   49:13 — Biden and Trump: What Changed?

   55:30 — Trump, Venezuelan Oil, and Empire

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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9. How the Middle East Got So Screwed Up, with Simon Sebag Montefiore

   29 september 2026 · 1 uur 15 min

   Afspelen
   “Let’s whisper it,” said historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. “The Trump blockade is working.” It can be hard to parse the state of play in the Middle East amid escalating rhetoric, but history gives us the necessary perspective to call balls and strikes in the present day. Today, the author of The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East joins School of War to discuss the forces that created the modern Middle East, why he thinks Trump’s strategy in Iran is working, and the growing rivalry between Israel and Turkey. “There is a real danger that Erdoğan will talk himself into a war with Israel,” he warns. Lees meer

   05:22 — The Middle East Is Not Monochrome

   09:49 — Four Eras of the Modern Middle East

   11:45 — The Problem With Nation-States

   18:30 — Why 1979 Changed the Middle East

   25:22 — Can Iran’s Revolution Survive Regime Change?

   34:28 — Iran, Hormuz, and the Nuclear Question

   39:57 — Could Iran’s Regime Reach a Breaking Point?

   44:42 — Why Iran’s Regime Is Built for War

   50:46 — Trump, Soleimani, and the 12-Day War

   52:28 — Can the Iran Blockade Work?

   54:23 — Israel’s Post–October 7 Grand Strategy

   1:04:56 — Israel, Turkey, and Erdoğan’s Neo-Ottoman Ambitions

   This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

   This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.
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10. America’s Aging Shipyards Are a Crisis Waiting to Happen

    25 september 2026 · 47 min

    Afspelen
    If America wants to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, it needs to build more warships. China currently dominates global shipbuilding—producing vessels at a scale the United States can no longer match. Alex Wong, an executive at South Korean shipbuilding giant Hanwha Group and a former Trump administration national security adviser, thinks he has the solution. Today, Wong joins Aaron MacLean to discuss how the United States lost its shipbuilding capacity, how South Korean technology and investment could help revive American shipyards, and what it will take to rebuild the country’s naval industrial base. “America doesn’t have 20 years” to regain its maritime dominance, he warns. Lees meer

    02:23 — America’s Shipbuilding Crisis

    05:44 — How America Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry

    09:43 — Why Commercial Shipbuilding Matters to the Navy

    12:28 — America vs. China’s Shipbuilding Capacity

    13:54 — Rebuilding America’s Shipyards

    16:16 — Robots and the Future of Shipbuilding

    23:52 — Rebuilding America’s Shipbuilding Workforce

    29:11 — Building Ships for Golden Dome

    30:11 — Can America Build Enough Ships?

    32:46 — Replacing Ships in Wartime

    34:54 — Trump, Kim Jong Un, and North Korea

    43:06 — Taiwan, Korea, and a Two-Front Crisis

    This episode of School of War is brought to you by Maven Smart System, the builder platform for the American warfighter, fielded across the force and live on the frontline today. Learn more at palantir.com.

    This episode of School of War is also brought to you by Stratolaunch, a leading pure-play hypersonics company. Stratolaunch helps the U.S. and its allies move new hypersonic technologies from concept to capability, faster and cheaper. Learn more about how Stratolaunch is accelerating the future of hypersonics at Stratolaunch.com.

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