Ep 115: Stephen Robinson on the Case against John Boyd

Stephen Robinson, author of The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War, joins the show to talk about Boyd, the man who developed the concept of “maneuver warfare,” and what Boyd may have gotten wrong. ▪️  Times      •      01:21 Introduction      •      02:24 “A genuine polymath”     •      04:20 The OODA Loop     •      07:39 J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddell Hart       •      13:28 The conventional blitzkrieg       •      19:26 Maneuver warfare      •      25:01 Cannae      •      29:07 Tactical success to operational failure       •      34:07 Post-Vietnam U.S. military woes     •      37:24 Active defense        •      43:31 Skeptical of technology     •      48:07 The Defense Reform Movement        •      53:50 Iraqi Freedom Follow along  on Instagram Find a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack Buy the book here - The Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War

Om Podcasten

This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history. Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and former China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras. The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.   Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Visit our Substack for episode transcripts Follow along on Instagram