A Better Peace: The War Room Podcast

On 5 February, 2021, newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed military leaders to lead a one-day stand-down within the next 60 days to address extremism within the nation's armed forces. That same afternoon our Editor-In Chief, Jacqueline Whitt sat down with Ty Seidule in the virtual studio to record this episode. Seidule, a prominent figure in the conversation about extremism, has long fought against the veneration of Robert E. Lee and the Confederate cause in the Army, specifically at the United States Military Academy. His 2015 video on Prager University, "Was the Civil War About Slavery?" has been viewed over 34 million times. And his newest book Robert E. Lee and Me is drawing both praise and anger. Their discussion ranges from his childhood in the south to his time at West Point as the Head of the Department of History, and what he's been doing since his retirement as a brigadier general in 2020.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes Ann Meredith to discuss her experience as a female officer in the U.S. Army. She joins WAR ROOM podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to discuss what her career has looked like as a woman, a mother and a wife in the Military Police corps. Ann recounts long separations, supportive units, honest mentors and the biases and discriminations that many women must overcome in any branch of the military. 

A BETTER PEACE welcomes back Tami Biddle to our GRAND STRATEGIST series. She joins WAR ROOM podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to discuss the contributions of Thomas C. Schelling to the Cold War nuclear strategy realm. Schelling, an economist, was a great contributor to the concepts of compellence, coercion and deterrence and strategic threat analysis. Tami and Ron examine Schelling's continued relevance today and even talk about how his theories can be taught in the classroom.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes authors General Sir Rupert Smith and Ilana Bet-El to the virtual studio to talk about the ultimate goal of being understood as authors. Smith and Bet-El are co-authors of The Utility of Force now available in a second edition. They join our own Michael Neiberg to discuss their collaborative process and the different strengths and attributes they each bring to the effort. He is a retired British Army officer with a wealth of experience in matters of war and diplomacy culminating as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. She is a strategic adviser, writer and historian with experience at the UN as well as advisory work around the world. Together they compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses to produce a book that is readable by academic, specialist and generalist alike. Editor's Note: We apologize for the intermittent sound quality of our guests. We had technical difficulties with the equipment, but we feel the intent of the conversation remains intact and is well worth the distractions.

EDITOR'S NOTE – At approximately 12:15 in the discussion a crucial data point was omitted seemingly creating a math error when COL Payne cites "15% of an extremist database having military service." To clarify the numbers we've included the original source data from COL Payne’s research below. The database contained 2,148 extremists who had radicalized to violent and non-violent extremism in the United States from 1948 to 2017, coded by ideology. PIRUS noted 922 far-right extremists have made up the most extensive ideological base with 496 Islamist extremists prevalent after the September 11, 2001 attacks.36 The PIRUS research found 230 (15.8 percent) of 1,456 extremists possessed military experience in the database, while 192 (18.9 percent) were connected to DT ideologies and thirty-eight (8.7 percent) to Islamist ideology.37 The PIRUS researcher noted 692 (32.2 percent) of the 2,148 extremists in the database could not be verified as having military service or not having military service based on open source research and public records. Therefore, the primary researcher offered the number of extremists in the PIRUS project with military service would likely be higher with some uncertainty of the actual percentage.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes Chris Dougherty and Becca Wasser from The Gaming Lab at the Center for New American Security (CNAS). Chris and Becca join host Ken Gilliam in our special series the WARGAMING ROOM to discuss the efforts and contributions of CNAS to the gaming world. The three discuss how strategic gaming is used to shape the choices of leaders in government policy, industry and academia.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes Adam Seipp to discuss the world of Cold War literature. Adam's previous article in our DUSTY SHELVES series reviewed Sir John Hackett's 1978 best seller, The Third World War: August 1985. Hackett, deemed both the heir to Pat Frank and Neville Shute and also the ancestor of Tom Clancy and so many others, is at the center of this episode. Adam is joined by DUSTY SHELVES editor, Tom Bruscino, and podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio. The three look at the allure of the dark topic of the Cold War apocalypse story and the growth of the military techno-thriller.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes back Ken Gilliam for another installment of the WARGAMING ROOM. In this episode Ken sits down with Doug Winton, the chair of the Department of Military Strategy, Planning and Operations (DMSPO) at the U.S. Army War College. Ken and Doug discuss War College games like JOINT OVERMATCH and MDO 1943. They examine the history of the games and their incorporation into the DMSPO curriculum to include the benefits as well as the limitations based on the time constraints and faculty experience of the resident program.

The United States has identified drug trafficking, drug use, and drug manufacturing as important issues -- domestically and internationally. In recent years, the opioid crisis has been at the center of many U.S. government efforts. Overdoses due to synthetic drugs have been on the rise for the past decade with fentanyl and its derivatives squarely at the heart of the issue. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Heidi Munro to the virtual studio to discuss how this once legal prescription painkiller has become a national crisis leading to criminal activity, tragedy for families across the country and a point of contention in international relations. Heidi joins podcast editor Ron Granieri to examine this issue's impact on national security, the military's involvement in possible management of the issue and where the nation goes from here.

When planning for interactions with foreign countries, whether in peace or in war, it can be easy for military planners to be lulled into the false security of the homogeneity of a culture or race or nationality. Many would argue that was exactly what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last two decades. But long before the United States’ most recent conflicts in the Middle East, there was a small island chain in the Pacific known as the Ryukyus that posed a particular challenge to the efforts of WWII Army and Marine planners. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Courtney Short to the virtual studio to discuss her study of the Okinawan people and the experiences of Soldiers and Marines as they invaded the southern-most islands of Japan. Courtney joins our Editor-In-Chief, Jackie Whitt to look at the individual culture and behavior of the Okinawans as U.S. forces moved ashore during a war that would, in some ways, liberate the people of the Ryukyus from centuries of rule by mainland Japan.

A BETTER PEACE welcomes Pulitzer nominated journalist and author Stephen Vogel to the virtual studio to talk about his path to authorship and his love of history. Steve joins our own Michael Neiberg to discuss the differences between his role as a journalist versus his style as a narrative historical author and how that differs even further from academic historical accounts. They both lament the future lack of written first hand accounts as the world moves forward in this day and age of electronic communications and what that means for historical accounts of present day.

What do a hyper-competitive Monopoly player, an educational methodologist and a U.S. Army War College Faculty member have in common? Well for starters they're all the same person and that combination of skills and interests makes Megan Hennessey the perfect guest on this inaugural WARGAMING ROOM episode of A BETTER PEACE. Megan joins series editor Ken Gilliam in the virtual studio to discuss how wargames tick all the boxes the head of educational methodology looks for. Megan and Ken examine how wargaming gets at breaking down relationship barriers, replicating emotional responses in a safe setting and the ability to track learning in an experiential learning environment.

Facial recognition technology promises to help law enforcement identify and track suspicious individuals ideally revealing bad actors before they can commit acts of violence or other crimes. The more promising facial recognition becomes as a technology however, the louder grow the voices concerned about the potential invasion of privacy that such mass collection could or would entail. "Only the guilty need worry" may be the comforting reply, but how does a free society protect itself while also protecting the privacy of its citizens? A BETTER PEACE welcomes Mandi Bohrer to examine facial recognition as it currently exists and where it may be going in the future. She joins podcast editor Ron Granieri in the virtual studio to discuss the pros and cons of this incredible tool and the measures necessary to ensure that the technology isn't misused.

On October 31st, 2000, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325, which reaffirmed “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace building, the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution.” Resolution 1325 helped create the Women in Peace and Security program or WPS. A BETTER PEACE welcomes Ambassador Jean E. Manes as she shares her experience in the national security realm. She joins podcast editor Ron Granieri in the studio to explain how far the WPS program has come in the last two decades and where it needs to continue to go. Ambassador Manes is the Civilian Deputy to the Commander and Foreign Policy Advisor, U.S. Southern Command, and in this unique position she has a wealth of real world cases that have benefited from the involvement of women.

It's a two-for-one on A BETTER PEACE this week. Kara Dixon-Vuic and Jason Vuic join Mike Neiberg in the studio for our ongoing ON WRITING series. Kara and Jason share their varied approaches to writing and discuss what literary collaboration looks like in their house. Two very different authors that write on different topics discuss their takes on research, their writing styles and reading each other's drafts.