The Security Studies Podcast

For Episode 42 I met with Professor Christine Fair to discuss her new course offering, “Irregular Warfare in Film.” We open up with an overview of the course and what inspired professor Fair to create it. We then go into how professor fair teaches students how to read film and begin developing key media literacy skills. For example, Professor Fair leverages Rodesiler’s MAPS protocol - Mode, Audience, Purpose, and Situation - to help her student view a film critically. We then take The Deer Hunter - a film featured in her course - discuss some its content and the lessons that we can gain from it. Lastly, we discuss Racism and Allegory in the 2000s film, District 9 - about aliens stranded over Johannesburg become earthly refugees.

For Episode 41 I had my fourth annual discussion with Professor Bruce Hoffman on the Islamic State and al Qaeda in 2019 and Beyond. We open up reviewing 2018 to frame the discussion before going into some significant events of 2019. We talk about the deaths of al-Baghdadi and Hamza bin Laden, the impact their deaths may have on their respective organizations, and the pros and cons of a decapitation strategy. We talk about IS’ inability to re-establish a presence in Sirte, Libya, three years after its expulsion from its North African enclave. Going digital, we also covered the notion of “deplatforming” IS from social media platforms and the outlook on its propaganda machine. While IS/AQ suffered some significant setbacks in 2019, I asked Professor Hoffman about their successes over the year. We covered: - their continued ability to conduct hundreds of simple and sophisticated attacks across the region; - the prison breaks occurring in Northern Syria as US military withdraws from the area - allowing other actors such as Russia and Turkey to create more chaos upon which terrorist organizations thrive; - and their spread deeper into new areas of the sub-Saharan African region; and - Turkey has begun deporting foreign fighters back to their home countries…and the international community doesn’t seem sure what to do about it. The Security Studies Podcast is produced by Jeffrey Palmer. Music: www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

For Episode 40 of the Security Studies Podcast I met with Professor Ben Buchanan to discuss Cyber Operations and AI. We start covering Prof. Buchanan’s background before diving into Cyber Operations. We discuss the many types of offensive ops - including a quick case study of the Ukrainian power grid hack - and talk defensive ops and the challenges therein. We then discussed the Center for Security and Emerging Technology - a major center for AI research and innovation at Georgetown University, which Prof. Buchanan has helped create. That dovetailed nicely into our discussion on AI and National Security. We covered the basics of AI before going over its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a national security context. The Security Studies Podcast is produced by Jeffrey Palmer. Music: www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

For Episode 39, I met with professor Rebecca Patterson to discuss her course, the US, the UN, and Peacekeeping. We open discussing the history and mission of the UN Peacekeeping enterprise, its constituent parts like the difference between a Special Political Mission and Special Representatives of the Secretary General, and just how it all works over at the UN. We then move onto the US’ role in UN Peacekeeping missions - both in the organization and domestically. Lastly, we cover a case study of the UN Peacekeeping mission in South Sudan and discuss the many structural challenges in UN Peacekeeping missions. The Security Studies Podcast is produced by Jeffrey Palmer. Music: www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Professor Sebastian Bae discusses his new course offering at SSP, Basics of Wargaming. Professor Bae discusses exactly what wargaming is, what he hopes students will gain from the course, and how it is leveraged within the intelligence and military communities. We also go over a few examples of the steps and considerations one ought to take when building their own game. The Security Studies Podcast is produced by Jeffrey Palmer. Music: www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music