Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
An unauthorized podcast series peeking behind the curtain at the vast machinery and briar patch politics of fighting terrorism and insurgency and everything in between. I'm a "COINtra" and not a "COINdinista", the latter are the vast army of apparatchiks and apologists who fire the engines of Irregular Warfare (IW) planet-wide. We're the skeptics and doubters of all things IW and special operations. And we are a tiny sliver of the IW community. I have noticed a jarring gap in this part of the discussion and intend on filling the breach.
Substack: Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute
Chasing Ghosts Podcast on YouTube
I am an Amazon Affiliate.
You can contact me at [email protected]
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 50 minutes
- Episodes
- 70
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
Ep 010 "Review and Discussion: Stalin's War by Sean McMeekin"
I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII.
References:
Sean McMeekin Stalin's War: A New History of World War II
John Koste…
Ep 009 "French COIN: Algeria: Losing Afrique (Part Two)"
I discuss the French experience in north Africa and the devastating consequences of the double blow of losing Indochina in the same time-frame in Algeria in north Africa.
References:
Martin Windrow Our…
Ep 008 "French COIN: Introduction and the Indochina Dénouement (Part One)"
In this first episode, I discuss the fundamentals of French irregular warfare doctrine with a concentration on COIN, French martial history in a thumbnail and the tragedy of French arms in post-WWII …
Ep 007 "Review and Discussion: Wrong Turn by Gian Gentile"
A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt.
References:
Colonel Gian Gentile Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Emb…
Ep 006 "Frameworks and Strategic Deficit Disorder"
I discuss the combat framework from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level and mission command for both regular and irregular warfare (IW). A deep knowledge of conventional warfare is…
Ep 005 "Peak Guerrilla: The Origins of Modern Irregular Warfare"
In this episode, I sketch the lives and exploits of three guerrilla luminaries: TE Lawrence, GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck and Michael Collins. I want to use them to illustrate what I consider the…
Ep 004 "The Impossibility of Successful Western Counterinsurgency"
Despite trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the West has nothing to show for the counterinsurgency campaigns it has waged. Despite the enormous industry and vast intellectual an…
Ep 003 "Michael Collins: The Empire Blinks"
The Irish Rebellion in 1916-1922 is what I characterize as in the era of "Peak Guerrilla" in concert with the exploits of TE Lawrence and GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck that set the stage for the m…
Ep 002 "Antifragility and Irregular Warfare"
In this episode, I make the case that insurgencies are antifragile and that counterinsurgencies are fragile for the most part; we discuss the concepts, examine historical and contemporary examples an…
Ep 001 "Terms of Endearment"
This charter episode will discuss the intent of the podcast and get started with the basics to create a framework of common understanding. This episode will discuss the National Defense Strategy, gen…