School of War

Anthony Vinci—co-founder and CEO of Vico, an AI company that empowers judgment and analysis in finance and national security, and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution—joins School of War to discuss the technological evolution of spycraft. How does an intelligence officer operate in a world of rapidly advancing technology? What happens when machines begin to assist, or even replace, human judgment? And are we being spied on constantly?

02:33 - The Job of an Intelligence Officer

03:43 - Technology and Intelligence Work

05:58 - Living Under Surveillance

07:43 - AI as an Intelligence Analyst

09:37 - The Origins of American Intelligence

10:15 - Who Was Wild Bill Donovan?

12:37 - The Modern Intelligence Community

14:25 - The Evolution of Spy Technology

16:39 - The Intelligence Gap Before 9/11

18:58 - A Mossad Chief's Critique

23:10 - The Fourth Intelligence Revolution

25:02 - AI and Autonomy

27:49 - Are We All Being Spied On?

30:05 - China's Political Warfare

34:00 - The COVID Intelligence Failure

39:59 - The Dangers of AI Language Models

48:37 - TikTok and Surveillance

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Rep. Michael Baumgartner, who represents Washington’s 5th Congressional District, joins the show from Singapore at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. What was the tone and significance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech? How are the Asian economies fairing in lieu of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? And what is the future of the American-led order in East Asia?

03:07 - Tone of the Shangri-La Dialogue

05:30 - Asia and the Strait of Hormuz

09:35 - The UAE's Distance from Iran

11:47 - America's Role in Asian Security

13:06 - Asia's Reaction to Trump's China Summit

15:25 - The Diversity of Asia

16:54 - Pete Hegseth's Speech

19:07 - The CCP's Control of China

20:59 - Korean and Japanese Views on China

24:07 - Drones and Autonomous Warfare

24:50 - Vietnam's Reinvention

28:07 - Singapore-U.S. Relations

30:21 - Paused Arms Sales

34:00 - Iran and Electoral Politics

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Matti Friedman is an award-winning journalist and columnist at The Free Press. He joins the show to discuss his latest book, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe. Whom were the Zionist Jews fighting on behalf of the British during World War II? What happened to the legendary Zionist figure Hannah Senesh? And how did a war story without battlefield success help give birth to a nation?

01:45 - The scene in British Mandate Palestine

07:30 - British MI9 unit

07:38 - Jewish military units

08:41 - Rescue missions into Europe

14:21 - Secret meeting in Tel Aviv

17:29 - Palestinian Jews’ view of European Jewry

21:51 - Hannah Senesh

24:46 - Parachuting technology in WWII

26:44 - Sword of Honour trilogy

29:48 - Discrimination against Jewish agents in Europe

32:54 - Chaos at the end of WWII

34:13 - Hannah Senesh’s doomed mission

43:10 - The escape of Hannah’s mother

47:43 - The importance of heroes and myths

49:06 - Understanding Zionism

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Jake Sullivan, former U.S. national security adviser under President Joe Biden, Kissinger professor of the practice of statecraft and world order at the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-host of The Long Game podcast, joins School of War to discuss geopolitics through the lens of today’s Democratic Party. Where do Democrats stand on China, Israel, Iran, and the war in Ukraine?

02:29 - China summit recap

04:03 - President Trump’s goals in China

05:44 - Taiwan threat level

08:50 - Democratic Party position on China

14:16 - Avoiding war with China

16:39 - Nature of competition with China

18:39 - Role of AI in power struggle

23:44 - Critique of Trump’s Iran policy

27:17 - Democratic Party position on Iran

32:30 - Iran’s nuclear program

35:25 - Democratic Party position on Israel

45:15 - Russia-Ukraine conflict

51:12 - Democratic Party restraint policies

52:56 - Weapon systems assistance for Ukraine

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Sir Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and columnist at The Free Press, joins the show in front of a live audience to discuss the perilous moment we find ourselves in and how it all relates to history. What is the status of the Iran war? What is influencing President Donald Trump’s policymaking? How do we defeat a dangerous wave of “anti-history”? And are we on the brink of a world war, a cold war, or something in between?

03:35 - Historical analogies for today

09:51 - Short war illusion

15:14 - We’re in a Cold War II

18:12 - Putin’s essay from 2021

19:50 - Russia-Ukraine war

25:29 - The American mythos of WWII

26:58 - Anti-history

30:04 - The life work of Bill Buckley

31:37 - Return of antisemitism and socialism

32:52 - President Trump’s worldview

36:37 - The war in Iran

47:45 - The new state of warfighting

53:53 - President Trump’s treatment of Ukraine

57:17 - Risks of Taiwan conflict

01:03:57 - Limits to air power

01:06:58 - Reversal of historical revisionism

01:12:30 - Story about Aaron’s father

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