In Episode 261 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Elbridge Colby, co-founder and principal of The Marathon Initiative, an organization whose mission is to develop the diplomatic, military, and economic strategies that the United States will need to navigate a protracted era of great power competition. Colby has also served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development and was the chief architect of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), which was by some estimates the most significant revision of U.S. defense strategy since 9/11, if not since the end of the Cold War.
This is a conversation about the national security challenges that Elbridge Colby believes we face as a country, their urgency, and what is needed in terms of practical changes to our strategic objectives, the organization of our national defense, what we prioritize, and perhaps most importantly, our sense of mission, unity, and national purpose. Kofinas and Colby spend the first hour laying out the nature and scope of these challenges as they pertain to the Chinese Communist Party in particular, and to the degree that it acts in unison with Chinese objectives, the Russian Federation as well.
The second hour is broken into two parts, the first of which covers specifics on how to meet the challenge, while the second focuses on Taiwan where Elbridge makes the case for why he believes that an attack on the island nation by China is not only likely but may come much sooner than most pundits and military planners expect. The consequences of such an attack would not only be destabilizing for the current equilibrium in Asia, but could escalate into a global kinetic conflict with hypersonic missiles, space warfare, cyber-attacks, and God forbid, the use of nuclear weapons. Preventing such scenarios from unfolding should be at the very top of our list of national priorities. Today’s conversation is mean to help inform you about just how salient this threat is and what we can and perhaps should do about it.
You can access the full episode, transcript, and intelligence report to this week’s conversation by going directly to the episode page at HiddenForces.io and clicking on "premium extras." All subscribers gain access to our premium feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.
If you enjoyed listening to today’s episode of Hidden Forces you can help support the show by doing the following:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | CastBox | RSS Feed
Write us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify
Subscribe to our mailing list at https://hiddenforces.io/newsletter/
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Subscribe & Support the Podcast at https://hiddenforces.io
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
Follow Demetri on Twitter at @Kofinas
Episode Recorded on 07/19/2022
Engineering Society and the Human Experience | Michael Sacasas
The Threats to US Dollar Hegemony | Daniel McDowell
Does the Fed Have Any Idea What It’s Doing? | Jeff Snider & Brent Johnson
How to Manage Risk in the Coming Recession | David Rosenberg
Is the Banking Crisis Over or Has It Just Begun? | Jeff Snider
What the Bailout of SVB Means for the Fed's Fight Against Inflation | Steven Kelly
How Our Brains Model Reality & the True Nature of the World | Iain McGilchrist
What’s Happened to Consensus Reality? | Jon Askonas
What Pre-WWII France Can Tell Us About America in 2023 | Jonathan Kirshner
How to Balance Legitimacy & Power in a Fractured World | Sir Paul Tucker
The 1990s and the Cancellation of the Future | Chuck Klosterman
The Effect of China’s Reopening on Global Growth & Inflation | Shehzad Qazi
What Comes After Secular Stagnation? | Barry Eichengreen
How Sanctions and Export Controls Weaponize Global Trade & Finance | Agathe Demarais
Navigating the Converging Worlds of Macro & Geopolitics | Roger Hirst & Jacob Shapiro
Turkey-Syria & the New Geopolitics of the Greater Middle East | Joshua Landis
What Is Silvergate Capital & Why Does It Matter? | Edwin Dorsey
Are We Headed Towards a Monetary Breakdown? | Jeff Snider
Why You Should Care About the Twitter Files | Renée DiResta
How Much of Crypto Is a Criminal Conspiracy? | James Block
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money