Modern War Institute

Writing is often treated as a peripheral activity in the military, but it is a defining characteristic of any profession—including the profession of arms. Professional military writing is the way we share information, new ideas, and creative solutions to collective problems. It’s the way we drive bottom-up change. And it’s vital if the Army is to be prepared for the challenges of tomorrow’s battlefield. On this episode, John Amble is joined by two two leaders of the Harding Project, an initiative aimed at renewing professional writing in the Army. Lieutenant Colonel Zach Griffiths and Sergeant First Class Leyton Summerlin describe the progress made since the Harding Project was launched one year ago and explain why the Army needs its people to share their ideas by writing.   The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

During the United States’ post-9/11 counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, many US service members survived wounds that would have been fatal in any previous conflict. This was largely because of the care they received—beginning at the point where they were wounded and continuing through evacuation to medical facilities in theater and transport to military hospitals at Landstuhl, Germany and in the United States. But prolonged casualty care will be vastly more challenging in what the Army calls LSCO (large-scale combat operations) environments. To explore why—and what will be required to meet the challenges—John Amble is joined on this episode by Colonel Jennifer Gurney, the chief of the DoD Joint Trauma System, and Lieutenant Colonel Max Ferguson, an infantry battalion commander whose recent deployment experience offers insights on how this crucial issue affects tactical-level maneuver units.   The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Both military practitioners and scholars believe that artificial intelligence will influence the character of war in the future. But it’s difficult to know how it will do so exactly, particularly as we look further and further into the future. Much of what we learn about that future will come from experimentation that yields lessons not just about the tools that will become increasingly important in future military operations, but the way that militaries develop them. That makes the recent experience of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, which operationalized an AI-enabled software called the Maven Smart System, instructive. Emmy Probasco and Igor Mikolic-Torreira of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology had direct access to observe this innovation project, and they join this episode to extract and explore those lessons.   The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.  

Thirty years ago this week—on October 3, 1993—US special operations forces launched a mission in Mogadishu. It was part of Operation Gothic Serpent, which was aimed at capturing Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The mission was intended to be of a short duration. But things changed when, shortly after members of Task Force Ranger launched from their base, fighters on the ground began firing on US aircraft. The battle that ensued—which would later become the subject of journalist Mark Bowden’s book, Black Hawk Down, and subsequently a film of the same name—lasted well into the next day. In this episode, you'll hear three people who took part in that battle. Listen as they share their firsthand perspectives of the action over those two days, describing the challenges they faced, reflecting on what was required to overcome those challenges, and exploring the lessons the battle holds for future Army leaders.   The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.