Ep 101: Iskander Rehman on Wars of Protraction

Iskander Rehman, Ax:son Johnson Fellow at SAIS’s Kissinger Center and author of Planning for Protraction: A Historically Informed Approach to Great-power War and Sino-US Competition, joins the show to talk about how future wars might be more a test of national endurance than expected. ▪️ Times      •    01:56 Introduction      •    04:01 Sharp and short wars     •    09:07 After the first salvo     •    12:33 Geography as a predictor     •    15:21 Will nuclear deterrence work?     •    21:16 “An informationized local war”     •    25:13 What matters in protracted wars     •    28:59 Innovation and adaptation     •    33:51 The role of national leadership in protracted conflict     •    38:49 Sino-U.S. competition      •    44:50 Absorbing massive casualties     •    48:06 Polybius Follow along  on Instagram Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack