Podcasts · Government

This Means War

Peter Roberts

98 episodes

Conversations about contemporary warfare and what it means for the future of fighting. Each episode will look at how wars are being fought around the world today, whether (and why) this is important, and what it all might mean for militaries and national security in the coming decades.

Episodes page 1 of 2

  1. The Great Game 2.0?

    · 46 min · S7 E10

    Russia is at war with most states in Europe. That's Moscow's perception. Dr Ivana Stradner highlights the reasons we need to be worried about the 2026/2027 winter given all the warning signs from the Kremlin. While…

  2. What might the US midterm elections mean for Allies?

    · 47 min · S7 E9

    As the US mid-term elections approach, and Donald Trump's domestic approval ratings sit in the doldrums, Dr John Hemmings makes a timely intervention about what various futures might emerge and what they could mean for…

  3. Financing Deterrence

    · 53 min · S7 E8

    The charter for the Defence, Security, and Resilience Bank (DSRB) has been signed and founding members – notably including both Canada and Luxenberg – are piling on the pressure to start making funding available to…

  4. Land Power and contemporary conflict

    · 36 min · S7 E7

    The reticence of Western governments to use Land Forces on operations has been notable of late. Dr Jack Watling, from RUSI in London, talks through the reasons for this, the lessons from Ukraine (and whether these are…

  5. The DIP: It's not about national security

    · 40 min · S7 E6

    Despite all the diatribes written about the UK's 2026 Defence Investment Plan, the root of the issue wasn't identified; that the plan was about military hardware and not about the UK's National Security. Ewan Lawson…

  6. Parliamentary Scrutiny of the Military: Society deserves better

    · 40 min · S7 E5

    The parliamentary committees responsible for scrutiny of the Ministry of Defence on behalf of society and tax-payers can't perform their roles effectively. Government departments, political and military leaders just…

  7. How Resilient or Prepared is Enough?

    · 33 min · S7 E4

    How prepared are states for national emergencies and contingencies? Russian actions in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and the Baltic States have triggered a number of nations to re-energise their national…

  8. Defending MDO

    · 43 min · S7 E3

    If you think MDO is a prescription for how the US will fight, think again. Colonel (retired) Richard Creed, Director, Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate at Fort Leavenworth, explains how the concept has evolved since…

  9. MDO: It's a terrible concept

    · 40 min · S7 E2

    A new book edited by Amos Fox and Franz Stefan Gady picks apart the concept of Multi Domain Operations in forensic detail. A collection of world class scholars and practitioners demystify the idea of MDO and airs just…

  10. What has Moscow got in store for 2026?

    · 34 min · S7 E1

    Have Europeans become desensitized to Moscow's actions? 2025 saw Moscow fly armed drones into Poland; aerial incursions in Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, and The Netherlands; seaborne and subsurface…

  11. Show me the money! The DSR Bank

    · 1 h 01 min · S6 E8

    How do defence companies fund growth when the orders from politicians have been promised but the cash isn't forthcoming? Want to build a new factory to double Europe's 155mm ammo production, or tank fleet, or - heavens…

  12. Mountain Warfare

    · 45 min · S6 E7

    A long held military truism is about commanding the high ground in any fight: often regarded as a precursor to victory. In the days of digital evangelism, much is made of this tenet in a metaphorical sense: there are…

  13. Battlefield AI

    · 44 min · S6 E6

    The disorderly arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the battlefield foretells of what is to come. The similarities to the hype around cyber warfare in the 2010s is all too clear. Yet the promise of profound…

  14. The State and The Soldier

    · 41 min · S6 E5

    That the military is subordinate to political (civil) authority seems like a no brainer. Headlines are made when challenges to this norm occur (see Trump 47 as an example), but those challenges have been more frequent…

  15. Training is credibility

    · 59 min · S6 E4

    In military circles, training can mean all things to different groups. Some think it is for making friends and building partnerships. Other parts of the national security community think it is for validation of…

  16. Debriefing the latest UK Strategic Defence Review

    · 42 min · S6 E3

    The was much to like about the 2025 UK SDR: an uncomfortable but honest diagnosis of the state of Britain's military; a characterisation of the world order and future threats; and a vigour to addressing the challenges.…

  17. The Russian Meat Grinder

    · 23 min · S6 E2

    Given the way Russian military cheifs send their troops into combat without regard for rates of attrition and casualties, it seems to bamboozle many Western commentators that the Russian people are not rising up…

  18. Air combat power vs IAMD

    · 41 min · S6 E1

    After more than 3 years of war in Ukraine, the Russian military is not a spent force: indeed, the combination of more flying hours for more aircrew, 3 years of combat experience in CAS, AI, CAP, Strike and ISR…

  19. SDR Threat series: How to deter Russia?

    · 32 min · S5 E10

    The West has not deterred Russia from destabilising Europe, the Caucasus, North and Sub Saharan Africa, or the Middle East. Moscow has undertaken war-like activity in NATO states since the 1990s: from assassination,…

  20. SDR Threat series: National Security without US guarantees

    · 38 min · S5 E9

    President Trump might have shocked some European leaders but the writing has been on the wall for decades: European states will have to take responsibility for their own security. Despite Russian aggression in Europe…

  21. SDR Threat Series - Trust and Honesty

    · 42 min · S3 E8

    If the relationship between a government, the military, and industry is to really change from a transactional one towards a sincere partnership it must be underpinned by a new era of honesty and clarity. Simon Kings,…

  22. SDR Threat Series – The Politics of a Defence Review

    · 41 min · S3 E7

    The politics of a review of a national security strategy are huge. What is the appetite for change? What is the appetite to deliver? What is the political reference and timeframe for decisions? How to balance domestic…

  23. SDR Threat series – Buying Silver Bullets

    · 33 min · S5 E6

    The continual changes to British defence acquisition and procurement processes, frameworks, doctrines, strategies and plans have wreaked havoc with the military equipment plan for decades. Various – and sometimes…

  24. SDR Threat series - Missile Defence (you can't defend everything)

    · 44 min · S5 E5

    Successive reports from the UK parliament since 2022 have highlight the inadequacies of air and missile defences in the UK against a growing threat envelope. Like many European states, missile defence – from UAVs,…

  25. The Threat Landscape with Peter Frankopan

    · 35 min · S5 E4

    National security risk registers capture a large number of potential threats to societies. So should any review of national security or national defence. The impacts of these risks are often more severe than predicted,…

  26. SDR Threat Series: Misunderstanding Adversaries and Inconvenient Threats

    · 35 min · S5 E3

    National security is an all-encompassing, cross-society endeavour: Any national security strategy must be that too, or it will miss critical elements and levers. In conversation with Maria de Goeij Reid from the…

  27. SDR Threat Series: Weapons, Systems, and the promise of AI

    · 40 min · S5 E2

    Professor Tony King (author of "Command", "Urban Warfare", and "The Combat Soldier") talks through his understanding of how threats will develop over the coming years, not least of which will be another Trump…

  28. SDR Threats Series: Styles and Themes of Contemporary Warfare

    · 40 min · S5 E1

    As the nearly new UK government formulate a Strategic Defence Review (probably for publication after new US President takes office), this mini-series looks at the threats and how the UK might mitigate them. In this…

  29. NATO finale: Friends and Enemies (Question Time)

    · 18 min · S4 E4

    This mini series about NATO has taken some people out of their comfort zone: nonetheless, there has been a lot of positive feedback about the honesty of these conversation about the Alliance. In the final episode of…

  30. The real heroes of NATO

    · 27 min · S4 E3

    NATO is rarely covered by mainstream news outlets between annual summits yet the work goes on constantly. In this episode, Peter talks to Professor Julian Lindley-French about the unsung heroes of the Alliance: the…

  31. NATO's Successes and Unsuccesses

    · 40 min · S4 E2

    NATO is often trumpeted as the most successful military Alliance in human history: a grand claim indeed. The reality is less definitive. NATO did not win the Cold War alone nor has it had military success in every…

  32. NATO isn't perfect (but it isn't going badly either)

    · 44 min · S4 E1

    Professors Peter Roberts and Julian Lindley French try and put the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty in perspective: how much of the history of the Alliance remains relevant today? NATO is certainly an…

  33. A Cautionary Tale from 1973

    · 45 min · S3 E13

    Intelligence failures, strategic surprise, heavy attrition, mass casualties, reversals, internal rivalries, personality conflicts, communications breakdowns, political posturing and big egos. Plus an enemy that…

  34. Norms and Forms of Warfare

    · 35 min · S3 E12

    It seems useful to frame some of the discussion about warfare around norms and forms rather than the character and nature terminology: this allows for a better understanding of the continuities and changes of combat…

  35. AUKUS – a reality check

    · 40 min · S3 E11

    Peter is joined by John Hemmings from the US and Malcolm Davies from Australia to talk about AUKUS. Since the security agreement was signed in September 2021, taking many people by surprise, the security situation in…

  36. Future War, Technology and Strategy

    · 34 min · S3 E10

    In October 2023, an expert group of national security experts from around the world came together at Wilton Park in Sussex for a discussion and exchange of views on the role of technology in future war, and the…

  37. Balancing and regional players

    · 35 min · S3 E8

    Some states face complex calculations in balancing their reactions to wars happening around them. Many (perhaps most?) governments of the day are approaching wars with less of an eye to the region and the future, and…

  38. Fortification

    · 33 min · S3 E8

    We live in a guarded society. Humanity seems to have adopted fortification on the battlefield and in our homes and cities at an unusual scale. Forming an intrinsic part of positional warfare, urban combat, and modern…

  39. DPRK in an era of Great Power realignment

    · 27 min · S3 E7

    Most people will not have missed the visit North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, to Russia last month. What went without comment was the significance of the realignment with Moscow and not Beijing. As the first foreign…

  40. On Taiwan – strategic ambiguity, operational clarity?

    · 36 min · S3 E6

    Beijing seems to have an insatiable appetite for increasing the scale and pace of military operations around Taiwan: from embargo operations to large scale, set piece amphibious exercises, busting median line airspace…

  41. Investing in a War Zone

    · 26 min · S3 E5

    How do companies, businesses, and industry make investment decisions in a war zone? There is no shortage of international funding committed to the rebuilding phase of Ukraine in a post war era yet most companies simply…

  42. Ending wars - a primer

    · 35 min · S3 E4

    Bringing conflict to a conclusion usually comes about because of annihilation of one party or the exhaustion of both. It sounds very 'dead Prussian', but relies more on each sides determination and resources than one…

  43. What if the deep battle doesn't matter?

    · 35 min · S3 E3

    The modern interpretation of manoeuvre theory for warfare holds the deep battle as a central avenue to success. Indeed, Western militaries have become so invested in this thinking that force designs and procurement…

  44. Manoeuvre theory is in a coma

    · 37 min · S3 E1

    The opportunities to use manoeuvrist theory on contemporary battlefields are scarce, if they exist at all. Professor Tony King talks to Peter about the three conditions he believes are necessary for it to be successful…

  45. Is manœuvre a myth?

    · 33 min · S3 E1

    There is a disturbing undercurrent in Western PME – demonising anything not termed 'manoeuvre' or 'manoeuvrist' as stupid, dated and irrelevant. Ukraine's generals have been lambasted by Western counterparts on…

  46. NATO structural issues unresolved at Vilnius

    · 46 min · S1 E25

    Going into the NATO summit at Vilnius, NATO had a three tier membership structure and lacked the political leadership and will to make hard decisions. There are some good examples of things going well at the tactical,…

  47. Japan Security Dilemmas

    · 32 min · S1 E24

    Surrounded by three potential adversaries, hampered by a history that prevents deep alliances with neighbours, and a below-optimal command integration arrangement with the US, Japan took stock and realised it needed a…

  48. A Middle East Without America

    · 42 min · S2 E23

    For decades, politics, security and economics in the Middle East has been inextricably linked to the USA. Today, however, Washington increasingly views the Middle East as a fly-over region – one that is largely absent…

  49. China's Machiavellian Mindset

    · 33 min · S2 E22

    After 20 Shangri La dialogues, it is not difficult to say that the world has changed – certainly in the Indo Pacific. In 2002, scholars and global leaders were talking about the 'Peaceful Rise' more than the 'China…

  50. Fiscal Reality and Strategic Autonomy

    · 47 min · S1 E21

    The price of military equipment and people means that many militaries are having to make decisions about trade-offs between force elements. Taking a 'capability holiday' might not be fashionable language anymore, but…

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