School of War

Phillips O’Brien, chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War, joins the show to discuss the nature of strategic decision making in World War II and beyond.

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Times

• 01:50 Introduction

• 02:48 Germany 1st debunked

• 06:50 A matter of choices

• 08:20 Management styles

• 11:23 FDR the navalist

• 14:42 Strategic balance

• 16:52 The British Empire

• 18:58 Churchill the shapeshifter

• 26:42 Britain’s place

• 29:22 Casablanca

• 33:54 Making Hitler

• 38:43 Firepower + racial superiority

• 42:41 Delaying defeat

• 44:55 A childish view of war

• 46:50 Human decisions

• 48:28 Stalin the survivor

• 51:30 “Not nice people”

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