Podcasts about War studies

In this episode, investigative journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan—both Visiting Fellows at the Department of War Studies—join Dr Daniela Richterová, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies, to discuss their new book, Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation. The book reflects on a generation of young Russians who came of age in the hopeful yet turbulent 1990s. In the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, many embraced the promise of reform and openness. But economic turmoil, war and terrorism soon reshaped the country, as the state moved steadily toward authoritarianism. Blending personal narrative with political analysis, Andrei and Irina explore how a once close-knit group of friends—united by shared ideals—fractured under the pressure of Putin's rise. Some aligned with the regime; others, like the authors, chose exile. Drawing on two decades of reporting, they examine the rise of Russia's security state and the moral decisions that shaped their generation.

War in the Smartphone Age explores how modern technologies, particularly smartphones, are transforming the character of conflict. Dr Matthew Ford, an Associate Professor in War Studies, makes a compelling case that "peeling back the layers of technology makes it possible to use the smartphone for the purposes of war." The smartphone is no longer just a communications tool; it is rapidly becoming both a weapon and a battlefield. Military readers may think we already know this. We argue that you don't, and that War in the Smartphone Age will add to any readers understanding. But this is not a book solely about phones. Rather, War in the Smartphone Age is a study of the wider technological infrastructure, physical and data, that underpins modern warfare. Ford examines the evolving relationships between governments and tech companies, the weaponisation of information, and the role digital platforms play in shaping conflict. Through case studies from the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Israeli Defence Force, using both conventional militaries and other groups, he demonstrates how these technologies are being deployed in powerful and transformative ways. Things we can now see and do on a smartphone have already changed how wars are conducted . This is not the future, the smart phone age is now. One of the book's core concepts is the "stack": a layered model that connects physical systems with abstract decision-making. At the top is data storage; at the bottom, the human decision-maker. Ford argues persuasively that to navigate or fight effectively in this new battlespace, we must understand every layer in between. Through the case studies, Ford shows how different actors have weaponised the smartphone environment. The Israeli Defence Force's tight control of data and infrastructure is one such example, albeit dependent on physical infrastructure. The limits and dependencies of the strategy are explored and Ford shows that a whole society approach is needed to fight effectively in the smartphone age. From the selection of the future fighters to how the power of data is used by the most simple soldier, War in the Smartphone Age left us feeling that we probably should have had a better understanding of it all before we did. But Ford doesn't stop at strategy. He also explores the moral and legal questions these technologies raise. Should facial recognition be permitted as a tool of war? When civilians use their phones to collect targeting data, do they become combatants? These questions strike at the heart of international humanitarian law in an era of participative warfare. This idea, participative warfare, is a central theme. Ford highlights, for instance, Ukrainian civilians uploading images to military apps, directly contributing to the targeting process. Civilians have always reported enemy activity, but smartphones make this instantaneous, radically increasing the speed and precision of strikes. War in the Smartphone Age also adds insights to legal and operational debates. For example, how can evidence gathered from open-source intelligence meet legal thresholds for prosecution? Ford notes that states, corporations, and individuals apply different ethical standards, and he questions whether big data companies should play a greater role in regulating wartime data flows. There are areas you could find to disagree. The prevalence of data networks, which seem easily targetable in a 'real' war, or the resource required, and surely not all war will be this way in the future, we'll run out of energy before it can happen? Futurists have been wrong before, after all. And then the books title will bring you back to earth as you pick up your smart phone. Smartphones are everywhere, as Ford notes they are the last things we lose and have a global dependency on them far deeper and more engrained than most imagine. Ford doesn't offer easy answers, but he certainly raises the right questions. Perhaps the most sobering chapter is the last, titl...

This episode forms part of a new strand of our podcast: Seapower Past and Present which explores seapower as it is understood and practised in the modern world whilst offering a historical perspective on the themes we explore. Each episode is chosen according to a theme or a location – a hotspot in the modern world where seapower has a major influence on geopolitics. So if you enjoy this episode do please seek out others in this strand – you will shortly be able to find episodes on economic warfare, critical national infrastructure, how technology is changing the nature of warfare at sea; and on hugely significant locations in the modern maritime world – the Black Sea, South China Sea, Middle East and Arctic.To make this series come alive we've teamed up with the Royal Navy Strategic Studies centre. In each episode you will hear from at least one historian and from at least one practitioner, a member of the armed forces who has direct first hand, personal experience of the topic being discussed.This episode explores the relationship between technology and sea power. In an age in which we read in the news about unmanned drones attacking warships at sea and the threat of hypersonic missiles it is particular important that we get to grips with the changes that are happening in our modern world and the historical pathway that has got us to this point.To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Lieutenant Commander Kit Perry, a serving officer in the Royal Navy who is also studying for a PhD at King's College in London. Kit's expertise lies in how new weapon systems, which are underpinned by different types of technological advancements, will change naval warfare. We also hear fromAndrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King's College and recent recipient of the Hattendorf Prize for Distinguished Original Research in Maritime History. As an example of technology dramatically altering naval warfare Andrew explores the development of precision fire on board HMS Excellent in 1850. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Anthem Companion to Karl Jaspers (Anthem Press, 2025) edited by Hans Joas and Matthias Bormuth is a collection of articles by an international group of leading experts has its special focus on the relevance of Karl Jaspers's philosophy for the social sciences. It also includes classical evaluations of Jaspers's thinking by renowned authors Talcott Parsons and Jürgen Habermas. Several chapters are devoted to the relationship between Jaspers and his teacher (Max Weber), his famous student (Hannah Arendt) and crucial figures in his intellectual world (Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel). Others deal with his relevance for disciplines from psychiatry to the study of religion and the historico-sociological research about the Axial Age, a term coined by Jaspers. In his introduction, editor Hans Joas tries to systematise Jaspers's relevance for the contemporary social sciences and to explain why Parsons had called him a ‘social scientist's philosopher'. The contributions to this volume deal, on one hand, with thematic areas for which Jaspers's work has been crucial: the Axial Age debate, a non-theological and non-reductive theory of religion; the understanding of psychoanalysis and psychiatry; and the possibilities of a diagnosis of one's own age. On the other hand, they put Jaspers in contrast with Max Weber, Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel and Hannah Arendt. The volume also contains important chapters by Talcott Parsons, who called Jaspers ‘a social scientist's philosopher', and by Jürgen Habermas, who contrasts his own views on the role of communicative ethics in an age of religious pluralism with those of Jaspers. The book promises to become an indispensable source in the re-evaluation of Jaspers's thinking in the years to come.Hans Joas is the Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Matthias Bormuth is Professor for Comparative Intellectual History at the University of Oldenburg and is also the Director of the Karl Jaspers Haus.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Anthem Companion to Karl Jaspers (Anthem Press, 2025) edited by Hans Joas and Matthias Bormuth is a collection of articles by an international group of leading experts has its special focus on the relevance of Karl Jaspers's philosophy for the social sciences. It also includes classical evaluations of Jaspers's thinking by renowned authors Talcott Parsons and Jürgen Habermas. Several chapters are devoted to the relationship between Jaspers and his teacher (Max Weber), his famous student (Hannah Arendt) and crucial figures in his intellectual world (Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel). Others deal with his relevance for disciplines from psychiatry to the study of religion and the historico-sociological research about the Axial Age, a term coined by Jaspers. In his introduction, editor Hans Joas tries to systematise Jaspers's relevance for the contemporary social sciences and to explain why Parsons had called him a ‘social scientist's philosopher'. The contributions to this volume deal, on one hand, with thematic areas for which Jaspers's work has been crucial: the Axial Age debate, a non-theological and non-reductive theory of religion; the understanding of psychoanalysis and psychiatry; and the possibilities of a diagnosis of one's own age. On the other hand, they put Jaspers in contrast with Max Weber, Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel and Hannah Arendt. The volume also contains important chapters by Talcott Parsons, who called Jaspers ‘a social scientist's philosopher', and by Jürgen Habermas, who contrasts his own views on the role of communicative ethics in an age of religious pluralism with those of Jaspers. The book promises to become an indispensable source in the re-evaluation of Jaspers's thinking in the years to come.Hans Joas is the Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Matthias Bormuth is Professor for Comparative Intellectual History at the University of Oldenburg and is also the Director of the Karl Jaspers Haus.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

The Anthem Companion to Karl Jaspers (Anthem Press, 2025) edited by Hans Joas and Matthias Bormuth is a collection of articles by an international group of leading experts has its special focus on the relevance of Karl Jaspers's philosophy for the social sciences. It also includes classical evaluations of Jaspers's thinking by renowned authors Talcott Parsons and Jürgen Habermas. Several chapters are devoted to the relationship between Jaspers and his teacher (Max Weber), his famous student (Hannah Arendt) and crucial figures in his intellectual world (Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel). Others deal with his relevance for disciplines from psychiatry to the study of religion and the historico-sociological research about the Axial Age, a term coined by Jaspers. In his introduction, editor Hans Joas tries to systematise Jaspers's relevance for the contemporary social sciences and to explain why Parsons had called him a ‘social scientist's philosopher'. The contributions to this volume deal, on one hand, with thematic areas for which Jaspers's work has been crucial: the Axial Age debate, a non-theological and non-reductive theory of religion; the understanding of psychoanalysis and psychiatry; and the possibilities of a diagnosis of one's own age. On the other hand, they put Jaspers in contrast with Max Weber, Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel and Hannah Arendt. The volume also contains important chapters by Talcott Parsons, who called Jaspers ‘a social scientist's philosopher', and by Jürgen Habermas, who contrasts his own views on the role of communicative ethics in an age of religious pluralism with those of Jaspers. The book promises to become an indispensable source in the re-evaluation of Jaspers's thinking in the years to come.Hans Joas is the Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Matthias Bormuth is Professor for Comparative Intellectual History at the University of Oldenburg and is also the Director of the Karl Jaspers Haus.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt. The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network. As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off. The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there. Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history.Please check out my earlier interview with Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz on the previous volume in this series Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) for the New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt. The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network. As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off. The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there. Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history.Please check out my earlier interview with Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz on the previous volume in this series Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) for the New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt. The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network. As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off. The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there. Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history.Please check out my earlier interview with Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz on the previous volume in this series Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) for the New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies

Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt. The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network. As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off. The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there. Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history.Please check out my earlier interview with Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz on the previous volume in this series Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) for the New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During The Stalingrad Offensive: Spring 1942 to the Spring of 1943 (Frontline Books, 2025) explores the brutal and widespread partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during 1942-1943, detailing the Axis forces' anti-partisan efforts and the impact on the Soviet war effort. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, and its associated forces would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. The preparations for the war against the partisans began before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, during which the Axis forces immediately put their plans into effect. The effects upon the newly conquered territories were soon being felt. The end of the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union was met by a Red Army winter offensive which began on 5 December 1941. As the author shows, this had repercussions behind the German lines, where the nascent Soviet partisan movement was attempting to grow and gain a foothold. By the spring of 1942 those early Soviet partisan units were ready to expand. The Germans, aware of the military situation both on the frontlines and in the rear of their armies, also prepared to counter the growing partisan threat. The partisans undoubtedly made a significant contribution to Stalin's war effort by countering Axis plans to exploit occupied Soviet territories economically, as well as providing valuable assistance to the Red Army by conducting systematic attacks against Hitler's rear communication network. As the German military planned to continue the Russian campaign into the summer of 1942, new security forces were gathered together and sent to the Soviet Union, and a new headquarters specifically organized to fight the guerrilla menace, was established. In this follow-up study, author Antonio Muñoz picks up the partisan and anti-partisan struggle in the East, where Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa left off. The struggle behind the frontlines in Russia proved to be as grand and epic as the fight along the front lines. Dr. Muñoz describes this war of attrition along the entire breath of the USSR. In 1942 the Ostheer, acting on Adolf Hitler's orders, launched their 1942 summer offensive which was aimed at capturing the Caucasus Mountains and the Russian oil fields that lay there. Dr. Muñoz not only covers the war behind the lines in every region of the occupied USSR, but also describes the German anti-partisan effort behind the lines of Army Group South, as its forces drove into the Caucasus Mountains, the Volga River bend and Stalingrad. No other work has included the guerrilla and anti-partisan struggle specific to the Stalingrad campaign. Muñoz manages to accomplish this, but also to convey the story of the rest of the partisan and anti-guerrilla war in the rest of the USSR from the spring of 1942 to the spring of 1943.Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history.Please check out my earlier interview with Dr. Antonio J. Muñoz on the previous volume in this series Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) for the New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

An interview by Danny Hoffman, Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington with Ilmari Käihkö, an associate professor of War Studies at the Swedish Defense University and a researcher at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Käihkö was a guest speaker at the UW for a public event titled, "Finnish/Nordic Perspectives on the War in Ukraine." Recorded in April 2025. Dr. Käihkö visited the University of Washington as part of the 2024-2025 Finland-Washington Research Exchange Program.

NATO-topmødet i dag bliver kort, præcist og uden falbelader - for ikke at genere Trump. Men de 31 europæiske NATO-medlemmer vil gerne vide: Trækker Trump amerikanske styrker ud af Europa? Og Merz og Macron varsler massiv oprustning. NATO's Rutte varsler 3,5 % af BNP til militær og 1,5 % af BNP til militær infrastruktur. Så alle krydser fingre og håber det bedste, netop hvor Trump, trods valgløfter, har kastet USA ind i endnu en krig i Mellemøsten - for så at forhandle en våbenhvile på plads. Hvordan påvirker det alliance og topmøde? Det er Verden ifølge Gram! Deltagere: Lone Dencker Wisborg - Fhv. Nato-ambassadør, Sten Rynning - Professor i War Studies ved SDU og direktør DIAS, Ole Wæver - Professor og centerleder ved forskningscenter for løsning af internationale konflikter, KU. Vært: Steffen Gram.

Is there a route to de-escalation between Israel and Iran?--YOUR NEXT LISTEN: As Gaza faces famine, where does the US stand on Isreal? --On Friday, the 13th of June, Israel launched a surprise attack on multiple targets across Iran. Israel strikes hit missile sites and nuclear facilities, and more recently also targeted Iranian state tv. The two nations have subsequently traded missile attacks over the following days, an escalation to the conflict, which is now the biggest between these two longstanding adversaries.New Statesman editor Tom McTague meets Lawrence Freedman, Professor Emeritus of War Studies at King's College London, to discuss the conflict between Israel and Iran.--READNetanyahu realises his lifelong dream by Megan GibsonFREEGet the best of our journalism straight to your inbox. Sign up for our weekly Saturday Read newsletter.SUBSCRIBEListen ad-free, and access all our reporting and analysis from £8.99 per month - become a New Statesman subscriber now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Tiffany Fairey, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies, and Dr Pamina Firchow, Associate Professor at Brandeis University, join Professor Rachel Kerr, Professor of War and Society at the Department of War Studies, to delve into their groundbreaking research that uses photography and community-defined indicators to rethink peace from the ground up. To coincide with the large-scale Imaging Peace street exhibition on The Strand and drawing on their work in Colombia, they explore how participatory methods like photovoice and Everyday Peace Indicators empower communities to shape their own visions of peace—challenging traditional research models and transforming peacebuilding practices in the process. Websites: Imaging Peace: https://imagingpeace.org/ Everyday Peace Indicators: https://www.everydaypeaceindicators.org/ Peace Photography: A Guide: https://imagingpeace.org/index.php/peace-photography-guide/ Articles: Photography and everyday peacebuilding. Examining the impact of photographing everyday peace in Colombia: https://bit.ly/43XGE4F Images and indicators: mixing participatory methods to build inclusive rigour: https://bit.ly/4kIMs9i

Despite pressure from the Trump administration for a peace deal or a ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia appears to be stepping up its attacks, launching almost 500 drones and missiles at Ukraine earlier this week. With President Trump keen on bringing this war to an end, or washing his hands of what he views as a European issue, Europe is debating how to build up their defense capabilities and support Ukraine. Professor Lawrence Freedman joins Thanos Davelis as we break down whether Europe is in a position to support Ukraine without Washington, and look into the broader lessons from the war in Ukraine.Lawrence Freedman is an emeritus professor of War Studies at King's College London, the author of Command: The Politics of Military Operations From Korea to Ukraine, and a co-author of the Substack Comment Is Freed.You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:As Trump Wavers, Europe Is More Optimistic About Defending UkraineRussia Launches Biggest Drone Assault of the War, Ukraine SaysThe Age of Forever Wars: Why Military Strategy No Longer Delivers VictoryGrowing Conflict and Uncertain Alliances: On the Future of European SecurityMitsotakis visits Odessa on WednesdayAmerican AI powerhouse eyes Cyprus

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2016 the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion—domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival—is as old as statecraft itself. In A Measure Short of War: A Brief History of Great Power Subversion (Oxford UP, 2025) Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide a compelling ride through the history of subversion. They examine subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and argue that, in our high stakes, changing technological landscape, a clear-eyed understanding of the history and parameters of subversion can help polities defend against it. Jill Kastner is a scholar in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London. She has a doctorate in History from Harvard University. She specializes in Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East. Her work has appeared in The Nation and Foreign Affairs. William C Wohlforth is the Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. His most recent books are America Abroad: The United States' Global Role in the 21st Century (2018), Written with Stephen G Brooks, and The History of International Relations and Russian Foreign Policy in the 20th century (2020), co edited with Anatoly V. Torkunov and Boris F Martynov.

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies

A detailed history of Nazi anti-partisan warfare on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa. From the start of the war on the Eastern Front, Hitler's Ostheer, his Eastern Army, would wage a vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in the East. Never before had such a wide-reaching campaign been fought. Preparations for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union had included the drawing up of plans and allocation of resources to secure the newly conquered territories. These plans included the premeditated murder of many innocent civilians. Adolf Hitler said as much when in July 1941, shortly after Stalin ordered the formation of partisans, he told his Army High Command: 'This partisan war has some advantage for us; it enables us to eradicate everyone who opposes us.' Anticipating resistance to Nazi occupation and rule, Hitler instructed the Ostheer to act ruthlessly, not only on the front lines but in the rear areas as well. When, in July 1941, Stalin ordered partisan forces to be created, the stage was therefore set for the largest and most savage conflict ever waged between a modern military force and a guerrilla army. The scale of the partisan and anti-partisan war on the Eastern Front was as costly and bitterly fought as the struggle on the front lines themselves. Employing thousands of primary source documents and scouring eight separate state archives in six countries over a twenty-two-year period, Antonio J. Muñoz's Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa: June 1941 to the Spring of 1942 (Frontline Books, 2025) has produced what can be described as a definitive account of this part of the war behind the front lines in the East during the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, the Nazis fought this war ruthlessly, by eliminating not only actual guerrillas, but a good portion of the civilian population. Employing dozens of wartime anti-partisan operational instructions, plus newly-created detailed battle maps and full orders of battle, Dr. Muñoz brings this little-known conflict behind the lines into focus for the very first time. The war behind the lines is detailed by district. This includes the Reichskommissariat Ostland region, which comprised the Generalbezirk Estland (Estonia), Generalbezirk Lettland (Latvia), Generalbezirk Litauen (Lithuania), Generalbezirk Bialystok (Northeastern Poland), and Generalbezirk Weißruthenien (Belarus). The book also covers the guerrilla and anti-partisan war in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Ukraine region) as well as in north, central and southern Russia. For Russia proper, anti-partisan operations against the guerrillas are broken down by army group area. Not only are the operations described, but the reader will also learn about guerrilla attacks and how the entire partisan movement grew from year to year, and region to region. Hitler's War Against the Partisans During Operation Barbarossa documents the whole of the beginning of the savage partisan war between June 1941 and the spring of 1942. Never before has every major, and some minor, anti-guerrilla operation been described in such detail.Dr Antonio J. Muñoz lives in New York City. He is a professor of history at Farmingdale State College in Long Island, New York. He is married, has two daughters and two grandchildren. His last work, published in 2018, covered the history of the German Secret Field Police in Greece, 1941-1944.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Free Beacon reporter Jon Levine joins Chuck and Sam to talk about Biden's cancer diagnosis, media complicity in Biden's medical cover-ups, and why wealthy private school students—and even a Bloomberg journalist—ended up arrested during the Columbia protests. Then, author and war correspondent Lynne O'Donnell shares the story of Afghan combat pilots who fought alongside U.S. forces and are now driving Ubers in Arizona due to government red tape. Finally, financial expert Gary Gygi, president of Gygi Capital Management, explains what's behind recent market swings and how smart investors navigated the chaos. Plus, don't miss Kiley's Corner for an update on the Team Canada sexual assault case, and tune in to hear the story of the aggressive mockingbird that's made a home in her yard. It's an episode you won't want to miss!www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegroundsTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@breakingbattlegroundsShow sponsors:Invest Yrefy - investyrefy.comOld Glory DepotSupport American jobs while standing up for your values. OldGloryDepot.com brings you conservative pride on premium, made-in-USA gear. Don't settle—wear your patriotism proudly. Learn more at: OldGloryDepot.com Dot VoteWith a .VOTE website, you ensure your political campaign stands out among the competition while simplifying how you reach voters.Learn more at: dotvote.vote4Freedom MobileExperience true freedom with 4Freedom Mobile, the exclusive provider offering nationwide coverage on all three major US networks (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile) with just one SIM card. Our service not only connects you but also shields you from data collection by network operators, social media platforms, government agencies, and more.Use code ‘Battleground' to get your first month for $9 and save $10 a month every month after.Learn more at: 4FreedomMobile.comAbout our guest:Jon Levine is a former political reporter for the Sunday New York Post. Jon has investigated Hunter Biden and worked on the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. A native New Yorker, he previously worked as a media reporter for TheWrap and Mediaite. His work has been featured on Fox News, CNN.com, The Atlantic, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. When he's not working, he's thinking about work. You can follow him on X @LevineJonathan.-Lynne O'Donnell is an Australian journalist, author, and broadcaster specializing in South and Central Asian affairs, war, and terrorism. She has served as the Afghanistan bureau chief for both Agence France-Presse (AFP) and The Associated Press between 2009 and 2017. O'Donnell holds a Master's degree in War Studies from King's College London and is a columnist for Foreign Policy. Her work has been featured in various prestigious publications worldwide. In 2007, she authored "High Tea in Mosul: The True Story of Two English women in War-Torn Iraq," which explores the lives of two Englishwomen in Iraq during the war. In 2022, during a reporting trip to Afghanistan, O'Donnell was detained and threatened by the Taliban, an experience she has publicly discussed to highlight press freedom issues in the region.-Gary Gygi is the president and CEO of Gygi Capital Management, a Utah-based investment advisory firm serving institutional and individual clients. A former First Vice President at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Gygi brings over three decades of experience in finance, having held leadership roles at Dean Witter, Smoot Miller Cheney, and WBB Securities. He has been a frequent contributor to national media outlets including Fox Business, KSL TV, and ABC4 News, offering expert commentary on market trends and retirement strategies. In addition to his financial career, Mr. Gygi served as Mayor of Cedar Hills, Utah, and has held various public service and nonprofit leadership roles, including with Prevent Child Abuse Utah and the National Organization for the Self Employed. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe

Rejecting much of the conventional wisdom to what makes up a modern Army, William F. Owen's Euclid's Army: Preparing Land Forces for Warfare Today (Howgate Publishing Limited, 2025) massacres fields sacred cows to challenge many of the mainstream ideas about the future of land warfare and how it should be conducted. Based on his experience working with the British Army and industry, Owen draws the reader back to basics based on limited budgets, limited resources and an overall reduction in cost, weight and complexity to comprehensively understand how armies might or should equip, train and organise for any unknowable future. Stripped of traditional academic or journalistic approaches and well-worn familiar narratives, Euclid's Army reformulates how soldiers, civil servants and politicians should think about land warfare, thus war in general.William F. Owen (Wilf) served for 12 years in the British Army in regular and reserve Infantry and Intelligence units. He then worked on defence advisory and security projects in West Africa and the Far East before moving to writing and editing on defence matters. In 2010, he co-founded Military Strategy Magazine, for which he is currently editor. He also worked as a consultant and contractor for the British Army and several defence agencies and companies worldwide.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

In this episode, Daniel J. Levy speaks with Dr Lynette Nusbacher about the future of UK–Israel relations, as viewed from a British strategic perspective. They explore how the Labour government's evolving stance – including threats of sanctions and the suspension of trade talks – is reshaping bilateral ties, and what this means for defence, intelligence and cyber cooperation. Dr Lynette Nusbacher is a strategic consultant and former British Army intelligence officer who was Head of the Strategic Horizons Unit in the UK Cabinet Office and Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. She was part of Britain's National Security Secretariat working on UK's national security strategy.

Rejecting much of the conventional wisdom to what makes up a modern Army, William F. Owen's Euclid's Army: Preparing Land Forces for Warfare Today (Howgate Publishing Limited, 2025) massacres fields sacred cows to challenge many of the mainstream ideas about the future of land warfare and how it should be conducted. Based on his experience working with the British Army and industry, Owen draws the reader back to basics based on limited budgets, limited resources and an overall reduction in cost, weight and complexity to comprehensively understand how armies might or should equip, train and organise for any unknowable future. Stripped of traditional academic or journalistic approaches and well-worn familiar narratives, Euclid's Army reformulates how soldiers, civil servants and politicians should think about land warfare, thus war in general.William F. Owen (Wilf) served for 12 years in the British Army in regular and reserve Infantry and Intelligence units. He then worked on defence advisory and security projects in West Africa and the Far East before moving to writing and editing on defence matters. In 2010, he co-founded Military Strategy Magazine, for which he is currently editor. He also worked as a consultant and contractor for the British Army and several defence agencies and companies worldwide.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Rejecting much of the conventional wisdom to what makes up a modern Army, William F. Owen's Euclid's Army: Preparing Land Forces for Warfare Today (Howgate Publishing Limited, 2025) massacres fields sacred cows to challenge many of the mainstream ideas about the future of land warfare and how it should be conducted. Based on his experience working with the British Army and industry, Owen draws the reader back to basics based on limited budgets, limited resources and an overall reduction in cost, weight and complexity to comprehensively understand how armies might or should equip, train and organise for any unknowable future. Stripped of traditional academic or journalistic approaches and well-worn familiar narratives, Euclid's Army reformulates how soldiers, civil servants and politicians should think about land warfare, thus war in general.William F. Owen (Wilf) served for 12 years in the British Army in regular and reserve Infantry and Intelligence units. He then worked on defence advisory and security projects in West Africa and the Far East before moving to writing and editing on defence matters. In 2010, he co-founded Military Strategy Magazine, for which he is currently editor. He also worked as a consultant and contractor for the British Army and several defence agencies and companies worldwide.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Rejecting much of the conventional wisdom to what makes up a modern Army, William F. Owen's Euclid's Army: Preparing Land Forces for Warfare Today (Howgate Publishing Limited, 2025) massacres fields sacred cows to challenge many of the mainstream ideas about the future of land warfare and how it should be conducted. Based on his experience working with the British Army and industry, Owen draws the reader back to basics based on limited budgets, limited resources and an overall reduction in cost, weight and complexity to comprehensively understand how armies might or should equip, train and organise for any unknowable future. Stripped of traditional academic or journalistic approaches and well-worn familiar narratives, Euclid's Army reformulates how soldiers, civil servants and politicians should think about land warfare, thus war in general.William F. Owen (Wilf) served for 12 years in the British Army in regular and reserve Infantry and Intelligence units. He then worked on defence advisory and security projects in West Africa and the Far East before moving to writing and editing on defence matters. In 2010, he co-founded Military Strategy Magazine, for which he is currently editor. He also worked as a consultant and contractor for the British Army and several defence agencies and companies worldwide.Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar with research areas spanning Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, Military History, War Studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, and Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

How did communist Czechoslovakia become a hub for Cold War terrorists like Carlos the Jackal and Abu Daoud? And what can today's intelligence professionals learn from its uneasy covert alliances? In this episode, Dr Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department of War Studies, joins Dorothea Gioe, Visiting Research Fellow at the King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence, to discuss her new book Watching the Jackals. Drawing on newly declassified archives, she reveals how Czechoslovakia's State Security Service (StB) navigated its complex, and often contradictory, ties with radical non-state actors—and how those Cold War entanglements still echo in today's security landscape.

How did Cold War intelligence operations shape postcolonial India's domestic politics and international alignments? Why did Western agencies prioritise relationships with Indian counterparts while publicly decrying non-alignment? And what can today's policymakers learn from the legacies of covert cooperation in the Global South? In this episode, Dr Paul McGarr, Lecturer in Intelligence Studies in the Department of War Studies, discusses his latest book Spying in South Asia. He explores the complex, often contradictory intelligence relationships between post-independence India and agencies such as MI5, MI6 and the CIA. From clandestine support to Cold War defections, and from covert propaganda campaigns to today's intelligence partnerships, Dr McGarr traces how secrecy, sovereignty and strategic necessity shaped India's place in global affairs—and continues to inform the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific today.

Now in its third year, the Russo-Ukraine War has upended the post-Cold War security landscape, exposing deep fractures in the global balance of power. As western unity frays and U.S. diplomacy shifts under President Trump, the war has become a flashpoint for competing visions of the international order. This week, the European Union gave Russia an ultimatum: accept a proposed ceasefire or face expanded sanctions—just days ahead of a potential round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday. The stakes are high, and the choices made this week could reshape not only the trajectory of the war but the future of global security.How should we understand the prospects for a sustainable peace in Ukraine amidst evolving geopolitical dynamics and continued battlefield uncertainty? To help make sense of these developments, Just Security Senior Fellow and Director of the Oxford Programme for Cyber and Tech Policy, Brianna Rosen, sat down with Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London and Professor Janina Dill, Dame Louise Richardson Chair in Global Security at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government. This conversation was part of the Calleva-Airey Neave Global Security Seminar Series at the University of Oxford. Show Notes: Just Security's Russia-Ukraine War Archive Ambassador Daniel Fried's "How to Land the Emerging Peace Deal on Peace for Ukraine"Music: “Broken” by David Bullard from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/david-bullard/broken (License code: OSC7K3LCPSGXISVI)

On this week's Centre for European Reform podcast, director Charles Grant sits down with visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, Sophia Gaston, to discuss the UK-EU summit set to take place on May 19. They consider the geopolitical and domestic context, and what will or won't be on the negotiating table. Produced by Octavia Hughes

Pakistan has described India's missile attacks that killed more than 30 people 'an act of war', but India says it was retaliation for a terrorist assault in Indian-controlled Kashmir. So is an all-out war inevitable between these two nuclear-armed neighbours. In the past the US has acted as a peace broker, but is the Trump administration willing to involve itself in another foreign conflict?   To discuss this, Krishnan Guru-Murthy is joined from Delhi by the Emmy-nominated journalist Barkha Dutt who has reported from the frontline in previous conflicts between India and Pakistan. And also by Ayesha Siddiqa from the Department of War Studies at King's College, London. She writes extensively on the Pakistan military after serving as the country's director of naval research. Produced by Calum Fraser, Holly Snelling, Rob Thomson  

Join Niu Honglin for a captivating conversation with Dr. Lin Li—a renowned Guzheng virtuoso and War Studies scholar from King's College London. Dr. Lin reveals her unique journey of mastering both music and academia, offering powerful insights on how women can redefine success by excelling across disciplines. Discover how passion and intellect converge to create extraordinary impact.

The Signal leak from the Department of Defense is just another reason American allies are worried about sharing sensitive intelligence with our country. David V. Gioe is British Academy Global Professor and Visiting Professor of Intelligence and International Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and Director of Studies for the Cambridge Security Initiative and is co-convener of its International Security and Intelligence program. He joins host Krys Boyd to explain what an “intelligence liaison” is and why the U.S. has broken those unwritten rules, and why that might put our national security in a precarious position. His article “How America's Allies Boost U.S. Intelligence” was published in Foreign Affairs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

La politica dei dazi promossa dal presidente Donald Trump offre alla Cina l’opportunità di rafforzare circuiti commerciali più integrati con l’Europa, il Giappone, la Corea del Sud e l’India, contribuendo alla formazione di una globalizzazione policentrica. In questo scenario, gli Stati Uniti appaiono sempre più isolati, sia sul piano geografico che economico. Allo stesso tempo, l’approccio esitante di Trump nella regione e l’ostilità verso un sistema liberale consentono a Pechino di intensificare le sue pressioni nel Pacifico, in particolare su Taiwan e nelle Filippine, senza incontrare una risposta efficace, con una conseguente perdita di credibilità americana nell’area. Ne parliamo con Giuliano Noci, professore di Ingegneria Economico-Gestionale al Politecnico di Milano e Prorettore del Polo territoriale cinese dal 2011, Alessio Patalano, professore al King’s College di Londra, Department of War Studies e Vittorio Emanuele Parsi, direttore dell’ASERI dell’Università Cattolica.

L'accordo di cessate il fuoco sul Mar Nero tra Ucraina e Russia è un primo, debole, passo verso la normalizzazione dei rapporti tra i due paesi. Ne parliamo con Eleonora Tafuro Ambrosetti, analista di ISPI. L'accesso al Mar Nero è strategico per la Russia, che dispone in questo modo di uno sbocco su un mare caldo per il commercio del petrolio. Ne parliamo con Alessio Patalano, professore al King's College di Londra, Department of War Studies.Le proteste dei gazawi a Gaza contro Hamas e il rilascio del regista palestinese premio Oscar, Hamdan Ballal. Ce ne parla da Israele Meron Rapoport, giornalista di +972 Magazine e Local Call.

The untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War In the 1970s and 1980s, Prague became a favorite destination for the world's most prominent terrorists and revolutionaries. They arrived here to seek refuge, enjoy recreation, or hold secret meetings aimed at securing training, arms, and other forms of support. While some were welcome with open arms, others were closely watched and were eventually ousted. Daniela Richterova's Watching the Jackals: Prague's Covert Liaisons with Cold War Terrorists and Revolutionaries (Georgetown University Press, 2025) is the untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War. Based on recently declassified intelligence files, Richterova unveils the story of Prague's engagement with various factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, along with some of the era's most infamous terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal, the Munich Olympics massacre commander Abu Daoud, and the Abu Nidal Organization. In this gripping account, Richterova explains why "Cold War Jackals" gravitated toward Prague and how the country's leaders reacted to their visits, and she uncovers the role Czechoslovakia's security and intelligence apparatus – the StB (Státní bezpečnost) played in these, at times, dangerous liaisons. Drawing on interviews and remarkably detailed records from the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic), Richterova offers readers interested in the intelligence world a fascinating account of how states use their spies to pursue covert policies with violent nonstate actors. The book also introduces new evidence and nuances into old debates about whether the Communist Bloc supported terrorism. Daniela Richterova is associate professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is a leading expert among the new generation of intelligence and security scholars, and she specializes in the history of Cold War espionage and state relations with terrorists and revolutionaries. She regularly publishes in leading academic and media outlets, including International Affairs and Foreign Policy Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War In the 1970s and 1980s, Prague became a favorite destination for the world's most prominent terrorists and revolutionaries. They arrived here to seek refuge, enjoy recreation, or hold secret meetings aimed at securing training, arms, and other forms of support. While some were welcome with open arms, others were closely watched and were eventually ousted. Daniela Richterova's Watching the Jackals: Prague's Covert Liaisons with Cold War Terrorists and Revolutionaries (Georgetown University Press, 2025) is the untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War. Based on recently declassified intelligence files, Richterova unveils the story of Prague's engagement with various factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, along with some of the era's most infamous terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal, the Munich Olympics massacre commander Abu Daoud, and the Abu Nidal Organization. In this gripping account, Richterova explains why "Cold War Jackals" gravitated toward Prague and how the country's leaders reacted to their visits, and she uncovers the role Czechoslovakia's security and intelligence apparatus – the StB (Státní bezpečnost) played in these, at times, dangerous liaisons. Drawing on interviews and remarkably detailed records from the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic), Richterova offers readers interested in the intelligence world a fascinating account of how states use their spies to pursue covert policies with violent nonstate actors. The book also introduces new evidence and nuances into old debates about whether the Communist Bloc supported terrorism. Daniela Richterova is associate professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is a leading expert among the new generation of intelligence and security scholars, and she specializes in the history of Cold War espionage and state relations with terrorists and revolutionaries. She regularly publishes in leading academic and media outlets, including International Affairs and Foreign Policy Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

The untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War In the 1970s and 1980s, Prague became a favorite destination for the world's most prominent terrorists and revolutionaries. They arrived here to seek refuge, enjoy recreation, or hold secret meetings aimed at securing training, arms, and other forms of support. While some were welcome with open arms, others were closely watched and were eventually ousted. Daniela Richterova's Watching the Jackals: Prague's Covert Liaisons with Cold War Terrorists and Revolutionaries (Georgetown University Press, 2025) is the untold history of Czechoslovakia's complex relations with Middle Eastern terrorists and revolutionaries during the closing decades of the Cold War. Based on recently declassified intelligence files, Richterova unveils the story of Prague's engagement with various factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, along with some of the era's most infamous terrorists, including Carlos the Jackal, the Munich Olympics massacre commander Abu Daoud, and the Abu Nidal Organization. In this gripping account, Richterova explains why "Cold War Jackals" gravitated toward Prague and how the country's leaders reacted to their visits, and she uncovers the role Czechoslovakia's security and intelligence apparatus – the StB (Státní bezpečnost) played in these, at times, dangerous liaisons. Drawing on interviews and remarkably detailed records from the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic), Richterova offers readers interested in the intelligence world a fascinating account of how states use their spies to pursue covert policies with violent nonstate actors. The book also introduces new evidence and nuances into old debates about whether the Communist Bloc supported terrorism. Daniela Richterova is associate professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She is a leading expert among the new generation of intelligence and security scholars, and she specializes in the history of Cold War espionage and state relations with terrorists and revolutionaries. She regularly publishes in leading academic and media outlets, including International Affairs and Foreign Policy Stephen Satkiewicz is an independent scholar whose research areas are related to Civilizational Sciences, Social Complexity, Big History, Historical Sociology, military history, War studies, International Relations, Geopolitics, as well as Russian and East European history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Day 1,107.Today, as former President Donald Trump takes action to block Ukrainian missiles, we provide the latest updates from the crucial defence summit in Brussels, and discuss proposals for a "sky shield" over Ukraine. Additionally, we explore the political shifts in Germany following its recent election, analysing whether the changes are truly transformative.Contributors:Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on X.Jade McGlynn (Research Fellow at The Department of War Studies at King's College London) @DrJadeMcGlynn on X.Franzisca Davies (Assistant Professor of Eastern and Central Eastern European History). @EFDavies on X.NOW AVAILABLE IN NEW LANGUAGES:The Telegraph has launched translated versions of Ukraine: The Latest in Ukrainian and Russian, making its reporting accessible to audiences on both sides of the battle lines and across the wider region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. Just search Україна: Останні Новини (Ukr) and Украина: Последние Новости (Ru) on your on your preferred podcast app to find them, or click the links below.Listen here: https://linktr.ee/ukrainethelatestLearn more about the tech: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/24/ukraine-the-latest-podcast-russian-ukrainian-ai-translation/Content Referenced:European-led Ukraine air ‘Sky Shield' protection plan could halt Russian missile attacks (The Guardian, with link to the full proposal):https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/european-led-ukraine-air-protection-plan-could-halt-russian-missile-attacksDr. Franziska Davies' Substack:https://efdavies.substack.com/Learn more about Kyiv Defenders:https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/9cbIDnrgN6Ukrainian Medics Film Screening(s):Sign Up for London Screening:https://forms.gle/AvTtgs4B3zsv5War6Article on The Kyiv Independent: https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-independents-film-about-military-medics-will-be-screened-in-6-more-european-cities/ Trump turns off Ukraine's missiles (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/05/donald-trump-turns-off-ukraine-missiles-zelensky/Trump team held ‘secret talks' with Zelensky opposition (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/03/06/trump-team-held-secret-talks-with-zelensky-opposition/Subscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Civil War is coming. Britain & America face a violent future That's the alarming prediction of Prof. David Betz, Professor of War in the Dept. of War Studies at King's College London and our guest on this week's #NCFWhittle

US president Donald Trump's hard line with allies and his overtures to Russia have upended assumptions about the transatlantic security alliance. So where does it leave Europe and Ireland? Hugh talks to Edward Burke from UCD's Centre for War Studies and Irish Times security correspondent Conor Gallagher. They discuss Ukraine's ability to fight on without US assistance, the future of European security architecture and what these changes mean for Ireland's defence policy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Day 1,094.Today, we hear how Washington is said to be considering a deal, which – if Russia broke – would see Ukraine automatically acquire membership to NATO, hear about possible European-specific alternatives to the alliance, and return again to the subject being forgotten in many discussions at the moment: war crimes. Later, to end the week, you'll hear a special report from Adélie Pojzman-Pontay into Ukrainian art history and culture.Contributors:Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Dr Mike Martin MP (Senior Visiting Fellow at The Department of War Studies, King's College London). @ThreshedThought on X.Verity Bowman (Foreign Reporter). @VerityBowman on X.With thanks to Tetyana Filevska (Creative Director of the "Ukrainian Institute"), and Julia Solovey (co-founder of public organization Ukraine WOW).Content Referenced: Telegraph Ukraine Live Blog:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/21/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-china-trump/Ukraine could get instant Nato membership if Russia breaks peace deal (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/20/ukraine-russia-war-donald-trump-putin-zelensky-peace-kyiv/Ukrainian female POWs tortured and paraded naked through the snow by Russian troops (Verity Bowman's Investigation in The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/ukrainian-female-pows-tortured-and-paraded-naked-by-russian/In Private Remarks on Russia, Rubio Tries to Reassure Europeans (New York Times):https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/politics/rubio-russia-europe.htmlRussia wants to declare 'victory' over Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukrainian intel claims (Kyiv Independent):https://kyivindependent.com/russia-wants-to-declare-victory-over-ukraine-on-feb-24-military-intelligence-claims/Russia's Weakness Offers Leverage (ISW Special Report):https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russias-weakness-offers-leverageDr Mike Martin's Thread:https://x.com/ThreshedThought/status/1892822755885592663?t=50uKvTgEYdgNpVOj2rnlGg&s=03Subscribe to The Telegraph: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.