Best Kory Edwards Podcasts (2024)

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S4E21: Strategy’s Human Dimension, with Baroness Neville-Jones 34:27

4M ago34:27

34:27

To conclude Season Four of Talking Strategy, we talk to long-serving diplomat, policy adviser and politician The Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones. With intimate experience of the functioning of governments and the EU, Lady Neville-Jones compares the respective organisational cultures and human side of strategy, drawing on lessons from her career. Paul…

1
S4E20: Moshe Dayan, Master of Emergent Strategy? With Professor Eitan Shamir 31:29

5M ago31:29

31:29

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) is a controversial figure in Israeli politics. Revered by some as a master strategist, he is criticised by others for his failure to foresee Egypt’s attack in 1973, and then for ‘giving up’ the Sinai in return for a peace treaty. Strategy-making can take two approaches. The first, ‘Deliberate Strategy’, is formulated and imp…

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S4E19: Arthur Tedder: A Coalition Strategist of War and Warfare with Air Marshal Edward Stringer 33:11

6M ago33:11

33:11

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur Tedder was General Eisenhower’s Deputy as Supreme Commander for Operation Overlord during the Second World War. A quiet and thoughtful leader, Tedder understood the difference between war and warfare and carefully orchestrated his campaigns – including the transportation plan concerning D-Day – in an alliance c…

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S4E18: Qasim Soleimani and the Strategy of Militant Proxies with Dr Afshon Ostovar 33:38

6M ago33:38

33:38

Qasim Soleimani was arguably Iran’s most important military leader in modern history. He moved Iran’s overall strategy from a direct approach to an indirect one of proxy warfare using non-state actors. Born in 1957, General Soleimani rose from a humble background to become a key commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His experience of …

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S4E17: José de San Martín: the Hannibal of Latin America? with Lieutenant General Diego Suñer 32:57

7M ago32:57

32:57

José de San Martín gained his military experience serving Spain and fighting the French, sometimes with the British,meeting Wellington, Beresford, and Napoleon. Having served for 22 years in the Spanish Army, Jose de San Martin brilliantly led the armies that overthrew the Spanish to liberate the southern countries of South America. With naval expe…

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S4E16: Alanbrooke, Churchill’s Right-Hand General with Dr Andrew Sangster 32:22

7M ago32:22

32:22

The relationship between Winston Churchill and his leading military advisor, the abrasive General ‘Shrapnel’ Alan Brooke (1883–1963), was one of the most productive yet tensest in the history of civil-military relations. This episode delves into some of their strategic debates. Viscount Alanbrooke’s relationship with Churchill was famously rocky, y…

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S4E15: Generals Lee and Grant: Great Strategists of the American Civil War with Dr Christian Keller 33:54

8M ago33:54

33:54

Generals Ulysses S Grant and Robert E Lee commanded the opposing armies in the American Civil War, each the greatest military leader of their own side. Products of the Academy at West Point, they were both expert tacticians and, most importantly, understood their sides’ strategic goals, limitations and opportunities, and led them accordingly. But G…

1
S4E14: Lord Peach: Evolving, Adopting and Adapting Alliance Strategy 38:06

8M ago38:06

38:06

Air Chief Marshal Lord Peach, the former Chair of NATO’s Military Committee and architect of NATO’s first new military strategy in 50 years, joins us to discuss the process of strategy-making in an Alliance context. Lord Peach is the UK’s most experienced officer, having served in key 4-star appointments, including as the UK’s Chief of the Defence …

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S4E13: Sergey Gorshkov, Architect of the Soviet Navy with Captain (ret.) Dr Kevin Rowlands 31:06

9M ago31:06

31:06

Admiral Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (1910–1988) was a celebrated hero of the so-called Great Fatherland War (1941–1945). He was Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy from 1956 until 1985, which he built up to be a navy fit for a superpower with global ambitions. He also furnished the navy’s theoretical strategic underpinnings through a series of pu…

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S4E12: Tecumseh: America’s First Whole-of-Society Strategy with Dr Kori Schake 33:06

9M ago33:06

33:06

In an epic achievement, Shawnee chief Tecumseh (1768–1813) brought together warring Native American tribes to stand up against the European settlers as they were pushing further West. His strategy included coalitions and the mobilisation of society as America had never seen before. In this episode, Beatrice and Paul are joined by Dr Kori Schake, Di…

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S4E11: Napoleon Bonaparte: Soldier, Strategist, Emperor with Professor Alan Forrest 33:53

10M ago33:53

33:53

Napoleon is admired as one of the greatest strategists ever; he won most of his battles and dictated the terms of the peace treaties that ended his individual wars. Yet in the end, he was defeated, and his empire fell apart. So how great a strategist was he really? Napoleon’s ‘system of war’ remained the point of reference for generations, interpre…

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S4E10: Michiel de Ruyter: The Modest Admiral Who Kept the English at Bay with Dr David 'J.D.' Davis 33:03

10M ago33:03

33:03

Hailing from humble origins, Michiel Adrienszoon was later given the surname de Ruyter, the ‘raider’. His greatest triumph was the Battle of Solebay in 1672. There he launched a pre-emptive strike against and defeated the English fleet as it prepared to attack the Netherlands jointly with the French. Originally a merchant sailor, Michiel de Ruyter …

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S4E9: Catherine the Great: Russia’s Black Sea Expansion 33:48

11M ago33:48

33:48

Catherine II of Russia prided herself on being called ‘emperor’, not ‘empress’. Having dumped her weak husband, she deployed her lovers strategically: one she made king of Poland, one she sent to conquer Crimea, and one to rule over it. Here are the origins of Russia’s claims to Ukraine. Dr Kelly O’Neill, an historian of Russia at Harvard Universit…

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S4E8: Gustavus Adolphus: Pioneer of Combined Arms Manoeuvre with Professor Gunnar Aselius 32:40

11M ago32:40

32:40

The Swedish campaigns in Central Europe in the Thirty Years’ War are remembered in folklore for their brutality, for massacres of civilians and ‘scorched earth’ tactics. And yet, as their leader, King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden (1594 – 1632) is remembered almost as a saint, even in these very same regions. King Gustavus Adolphus, an experienced…

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S4E7: Caesar: Rome's Defensive Expansion 33:30

12M ago33:30

33:30

Julius Caesar is famous for describing hugely complicated strategic problems, then adding his famous Vini, vidi, vici: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’. But what did his strategic genius consist of? And how did he justify extending the Roman Empire right across Western Europe? Did Rome acquire her empire, not quite in a fit of absent-mindedness, but de…

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S4E6: Yi Sun-sin: Korea’s Greatest Commander 31:29

12M ago31:29

31:29

While most of the political and military commanders whom we now call ‘great’ were often ruthless or megalomaniacs, Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin is remembered not only for his military prowess but also for his integrity and humility. He came to his nation’s rescue in extremis when others had failed. The 15th and 16th century saw unprecedented creativit…

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S4E5: Frederick II of Prussia, The Philosopher King with Dr Adam Storring 33:08

1y ago33:08

33:08

Frederick II of Prussia, like the Era of the Enlightenment in which he lived, was torn about warfare: was it to be humanised, or was it to be perfected? As king he favoured the latter, earning the respect of contemporaries as the greatest strategist of his age. Frederick in his youth thought Machiavelli’s instructions for princes morally reprehensi…

1
S4E4: Alexander the Great: Son of Zeus with Dr Andrew Fear 32:57

1y ago32:57

32:57

Alexander III of Macedon posed as the ‘Son of Zeus’, but followed the advice of his biological father, King Philip II, to get out of Macedon and “seek a kingdom equal to yourself”. Between 336 and 323 BC, Alexander the Great created the largest empire the Middle East had known. Macedonian expansionism had begun under Philip II, with his son Alexand…

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S4E3: Shaka Zulu: Africa’s Greatest Commander? with Professor John Laband 33:20

1y ago33:20

33:20

Shaka Zulu (c. 1787–1828) was the most powerful king in southern Africa during the pre-colonial period. He forged a polity that would become the largest in the region through the ruthless use of his reorganised and loyal army. Initially regarded as an upstart, Shaka managed to impose himself as a regional ruler. Invaded by a powerful neighbouring t…

1
S4E2: Xerxes: The Persian Empire’s Aegean Expansion with Dr John O. Hyland 33:44

1y ago33:44

33:44

Dr John O. Hyland joins Paul and Beatrice to discuss fifth-century BC Persian ruler Xerxes I, whose royal progress took him to the Western boundaries of his empire. Xerxes I tried to extend his rule beyond the Aegean, which his father had failed to accomplish. For a land power this was a challenge, despite the formidable army that Xerxes commanded.…

1
S4E1: Subotai the Valiant: Genghis Khan’s Master Strategist 32:21

1y ago32:21

32:21

The credit for successful military campaigns often goes to the senior commander, when in fact, the brilliance of the operation and the planning happened at much lower levels of the organisation. This is the case with Subotai (1175 – 1248), Genghis Khan’s leading general. Veteran and military historian Dr Angelo Caravaggio joins Paul and Beatrice to…

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S3E12: Petraeus’s ‘Big Four’: Brainstorm, Communicate, Implement, Assess 40:52

1+ y ago40:52

40:52

To conclude Season Three of Talking Strategy, US Army General (ret.) Dr David Petraeus shares with us his philosophy about making good strategy. A scholarly soldier with a long and varied career, he commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2010–11 and subsequently served as director of the CIA. General Petraeus’s expe…

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S3E11: Raoul Castex: The Servitude of Strategy with Professor Martin Motte 30:24

1+ y ago30:24

30:24

Raoul Castex (1878–1968) was an active naval officer who theorised widely on strategy. As an advocate of ‘jointness’, he took a comprehensive approach rather than relying on any one service. A child of the predominant geopolitical fashions of his time, Castex was an advocate of keeping diplomats and ministers out of strategy-making during war, of a…

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S3E10: Mao Zedong’s Strategy for Revolutionary War with Professor Steve Tsang 33:23

1+ y ago33:23

33:23

Professor Steve Tsang joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss the founding father of the Chinese People’s Republic, Mao Zedong. Mao was both a Leninist strategic theorist and the leader of the Chinese Communists in their fight to overthrow the Chinese nationalists – while not exerting themselves too much in the battle against Japanese occupation. There …

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S3E9: Sir Michael Quinlan and British Nuclear Strategy with Dr Tanya Ogilvie-White & Dr Kristan Stoddart 30:06

1+ y ago30:06

30:06

With a serious commitment to the ‘Just War’ tradition, Sir Michael Quinlan (1930–2009), chief British nuclear strategist of the late 1970s and 1980s, helped to construct the complex edifice of the British and NATO nuclear deterrence posture. Sir Michael was both a strategic analyst and, as a key British civil servant, a practitioner in so far as hi…

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S3E8: Continuation of Diplomacy by Other Means: Dietrich von Bülow with Dr Arthur Kuhle 32:36

1+ y ago32:36

32:36

Dietrich Heinrich von Bülow (1757–1807) was called ‘everything from a conceited crank to the founder of modern military science’ (R R Palmer). Probably the last Prussian strategist to sympathise with the French Revolution, he had a keen interest in the relationship between political aims and war as their instrument, and in geopolitics: he correctly…

1
S3E7: T.E. Lawrence: Understanding Irregular Warfare’s Cultural and Human Terrain with Dr Robert Johnson 33:20

1+ y ago33:20

33:20

Lawrence of Arabia is legendary status, Britain’s most romantic strategic theorist-cum-practitioner; as ‘al-Lorans’, he won the hearts of many Arabs in their fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Dr Rob Johnson, the author of T.E. Lawrence’s most recent biography, joins Beatrice and Paul for this week’s episode.…

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S3E6: Net Assessment as a Tool of Strategy: Andrew Marshall, with Dr Thomas G Mahnken 29:47

1+ y ago29:47

29:47

Foreign policy strategist Andrew Marshall had a career that spanned seven decades from the late 1940s. He was hailed by a former KGB officer as ‘the grey cardinal, the éminence grise’ of the US revolution of military affairs, and as ‘the great hero’ of Chinese officers tracking developments in US military technology, claiming they had translated ev…

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S3E5: Kautilya: India’s Forerunner to Machiavelli? with Professor Kaushik Roy 32:26

1+ y ago32:26

32:26

Kautilya lived in India from 375 to 283 BC. He ranks alongside Sun Tzu as one of the great early sages who wrote about the relations between polities, and thus also about wars between them. Kaushik Roy, Guru Nanak Chair Professor at Jadavpur University, India, joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss his work. Kautilya’s approach to strategy included an …

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S3E4: Aube and the Jeune Ecole: Strategy for the Weak 29:46

1+ y ago29:46

29:46

Admiral Arne Røksund joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss a set of French strategists collectively referred to as the Jeune Ecole, ‘the young school’. The Jeune Ecole is considered the counterpoint to many battle-obsessed land strategists and followers of 19th century US naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan. Leading among the strategists of the Jeune Ec…

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S3E3: John Warden: Lord of the Five Rings with Col Dr John Andreas Olsen 31:41

1+ y ago31:41

31:41

John Warden III was an exceptionally influential air power strategist whose name is inextricably connected with Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 coalition campaign to free Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion. We discuss his influence with Colonel Dr John Andreas Olsen of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. Warden was a pupil of theorist Carl von Clausewitz,…

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S3E2: C E Callwell: Small Wars and Integrated Sea-Land Operations 31:06

1+ y ago31:06

31:06

Historian Dr Daniel Whittingham joins Beatrice and Paul for a conversation about Major-General Sir Charles Edward Callwell (1859–1928). An unabashed British imperialist, Callwell’s views are strongly reflected in his writings on Small Wars, by which he meant counterinsurgency operations. Callwell started his career as an artillery officer, and then…

1
S3E1: Jomini: Selling Napoleon’s System with Professor Antulio Echevarria 31:20

1+ y ago31:20

31:20

Antoine-Henri Jomini was the strategist who anticipated Napoleon’s movements – and the general who betrayed the emperor by defecting to the Russians for a better position. He was among the most widely read strategists of land warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To kick off Season 3 of Talking Strategy, Beatrice Heuser and Paul O’Neil…

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S2E12: A Practitioner’s View: Competitive Strategy with Mick Ryan 33:16

1+ y ago33:16

33:16

Recently retired Major General Mick Ryan sits down with Beatrice and Paul for the Series 2 finale of Talking Strategy. Mick is an experienced strategist, having worked at high levels in this capacity in the Australian and US militaries. During his career, he commanded at platoon, squadron, regiment, task force and brigade levels in the Australian A…

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S2E11: General André Beaufre: The Two Axes of Deterrence with Brigadier General Dr Hervé Pierre 33:36

1+ y ago33:36

33:36

Brigadier General Dr Hervé Pierre joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss the 20th century French strategist General André Beaufre, who defined strategy as ‘the art of applying force so that it makes the most effective contribution towards achieving the ends set by political policy’. General Beaufre (1902–1975) said strategy is the ‘art of the dialectic…

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S2E10: The Captain who Taught Generals: Basil Liddell Hart 30:51

1+ y ago30:51

30:51

Basil Liddell Hart (1895-1970) was described by President John F. Kennedy as the “captain who taught generals”. Dr Bradley Potter joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss Liddell Hart, captain of the First World War who took to writing about war with the aim of preventing a repetition of its great slaughter. The tools of strategy explored by Liddell Hart…

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Bonus: Reflections on a Pedagogy for Strategy with Emilie Cleret 32:38

1+ y ago32:38

32:38

In this festive special, Beatrice and Paul reflect on the lessons from their meanderings across the strategic landscape over the past 20 episodes of Talking Strategy. What is very clear is that, ultimately, commanders must still be able to make sense of the complex environment they are facing – and not just a military one. Military command remains …

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S2E9: Gerald of Wales: Medieval Adaptation to Terrain and Enemy with Professor Matthew Strickland 33:16

1+ y ago33:16

33:16

Professor Matthew Strickland joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss Gerald of Wales, royal clerk and chaplain to King Henry II of England in 1184. In a time when the Norman rulers of the British Isles relied on clerics as civil servants, Gerald (c. 1146–1223), of mixed Welsh-Norman descent, furnished exceptional analytical surveys of Wales and Ireland.…

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S2E8: Thinking the Unthinkable: The Nuclear Strategy of Herman Kahn with Dr Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi 33:26

2y ago33:26

33:26

Dr Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss prominent futurist and founder of the Hudson Institute Herman Kahn. Herman Kahn (1922–1983) came across to some as a ‘roly poly, second-strike Father Christmas’, but to most of his contemporaries in the US, his style and way of talking about nuclear strategy seemed deeply immoral. Arguabl…

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S2E7: The French Counterinsurgency School: Roger Trinquier and David Galula with Dr Elie Tenenbaum 27:12

2y ago27:12

27:12

Dr Élie Tenenbaum joins Beatrice and Paul to discuss two French strategists who focused strongly on the political and psychological warfare element of both insurgencies and counterinsurgency operations (COIN). Roger Trinquier (1908–1986) and David Galula (1919–1967) had ample personal experience of insurgencies and COIN operations: both had served …

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S2E6: Arming the Citizens: Machiavelli’s Quest for Virtue 32:27

2y ago32:27

32:27

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) had a rocky career, with great ups when he had influential administrative positions in his city and great downs when he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured. He published his Art of War to great acclaim, yet he had to publish his The Prince under a pseudonym. In this episode, we concentrate on his Art of War and o…

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S2E5: Alexander Svechin: Inventor of Soviet Operational Art with Professor Gudrun Persson 32:00

2y ago32:00

32:00

Aleksandr Andreevich Svechin was an ethnic Russian born in Odessa in 1878. He became an officer of the imperial Russian army and then of the Red Army, where he rose to the rank of general and wrote a definitive manual on strategy. A ‘Clausewitzian’ in approach, stressing the uniqueness of each war and rejecting one-size-fits-all principles, Svechin…

1
S2E4: Ibn Khaldun and Early Muslim Strategic Thought with Professor Malik Mutfi 32:44

2y ago32:44

32:44

Professor Malik Mufti, a specialist on the politics and international relations of the Middle East, discusses two medieval Muslim works of exemplary scholarship and erudition. Like many other Muslim works of the Middle Ages, the two works were greatly influenced by Greek and Roman literature that had become available in translation or, to very educ…

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S2E3: Giulio Douhet: Targeting Civilians from the Air, with Colonel Dr Stephen Renner 33:09

2y ago33:09

33:09

Following World War I, air power promised a revolutionary transformation of war, and Italian General Giulio Douhet (1869-1930) was its first prophet. After the carnage of the First World War, strategists throughout Europe sought to devise new strategies and technologies that would prevent a repetition of the drawn-out trench warfare on the Western …

1
S2E2: Neptune’s Prophet: Alfred Thayer Mahan with Cdr Dr Benjamin Armstrong 33:07

2y ago33:07

33:07

Writing when the USA was becoming a great power, strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) drew on historical precedent in his talks and books to prepare America to pick up the baton from the United Kingdom. Unashamedly imperialist, Mahan wrote in his The Impact of Sea Power on History, ‘Naval strategy has for its end to found, support, and increa…

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S2E1: Sun Tzu – Classical Chinese Strategic Thought with Dr Peter Lorge 30:59

2y ago30:59

30:59

In the first instalment of the new season of Talking Strategy, Paul and Beatrice are joined by Dr Peter Lorge, Associate Professor of Premodern Chinese and Military History at Vanderbilt University. The enigmatic Chinese text that took its definitive form in the third century BC was not discovered in Europe until shortly before the French Revolutio…

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S1E12: A Practitioner’s Perspective: Creating a National Security Strategy with Lord Peter Ricketts 39:34

2y ago39:34

39:34

Strategy is an intensely practical consideration, and in this episode, we examine strategy from the perspective of a practitioner. Lord Peter Ricketts was the UK’s first National Security Adviser and joins us to share his experience of strategy-making at the highest levels of government. Lord Ricketts reflects on the difference between crafting a s…

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S1E11: Thomas Schelling: Nobel Economist Turned Nuclear Strategist with Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman 25:55

2y ago25:55

25:55

Thomas Schelling brought a cross-disciplinary approach to nuclear strategy and the understanding of conflict. Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, joins us to discuss Schelling’s pioneering work and reluctance to be seen as a game theorist. Thomas Schelling (1921–2016), was awarded the Nobel P…

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S1E10: Christine de Pizan: Strategic Precepts for the Prince with Professor (em.) Françoise Le Saux 28:28

2y ago28:28

28:28

We’re joined by Emeritus Professor Françoise Le Saux to discuss the unique work of Christine de Pizan. An Italian by origin, de Pizan was charged with writing manuals on good governance and the conduct of war for the medieval French crown prince who became Charles VI. Her main concern in a time of civil and foreign wars was to reduce civilian suffe…

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S1E9: Colin S Gray, Strategic Culture, and What is Good Enough with Dr Jeannie Johnson 27:14

2y ago27:14

27:14

Dr Jeannie Johnson, Director of the Center for Anticipatory Intelligence at Utah State University, joins us to discuss the legacy of Colin S Gray. Most notable for originating Donald Rumsfeld’s ‘unknown unknowns’ through his tetrarchy of enquiry, Gray’s thinking on strategic culture remains influential today. With a career and influence straddling …

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