Almost every listener will be familiar with the Turkish-made TB-2 Bayraktar drone. Most will have seen the many reports of its operational effectiveness in the hands of Ukrainian forces defending against Russia's invasion of their country. But beyond that media coverage, the story of the drone's development, its particular capabilities, and its performance not just in Ukraine but in other recent conflict, as well, is an interesting one. To discuss these topics and explore the broader implications of the TB-2's effectiveness in Ukraine, John Amble is joined on this episode by Dr. Can Kasapoglu, director of the Security and Defense Studies Program at EDAM, a Turkish think tank, and a nonresident fellow at the Jamestown Foundation.
This episode of the MWI Podcast features a discussion with Mark Mitchell. A career Army officer, he was among the first Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and went on to command 5th Special Forces Group. After retiring he served as acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. ...
Recently, large numbers of Russian military forces have been moved to areas near Russia's border with Ukraine. This has set off a wave of reporting and analysis about what it likely means. But there’s a considerable degree of nuance and substantial context that both need to be accounted for to best understand what the troop movements indicate, to predict what comes next, and to identify what strategic options are available to the united States and NATO. To examine all of that in this episode of the MWI Podcast, John Amble is joined by Michael Kofman, the director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses. ...
President Joe Biden recently made his first trip to Europe. Between meetings with G-7 leaders and a bilateral meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, he attended his first NATO summit. Those events offer an opportunity to assess issues of European security, and specifically the current state of NATO. To do so, John Amble is joined in this episode by Lauren Speranza, director of transatlantic defense and security at the Center for European Policy Analysis. ...
