It’s all podcasts all the time here! We have another must listen to podcast that, if you care even a little about the New Great Power Completion, you really should listen too. This time we go to the Modern War Institute for an interview with the 10th Special Forces Group Commander for a discussion on the unique challenges posed in the Arctic Environment and why this is important. Here is their description:
This episode of the Modern War Institute Podcast features a conversation with Col. Brian Rauen and Capt. Barrett Martin. Col. Rauen is the commander of 10th Special Forces Group and Capt. Martin is one of the officers assigned to the group. The episode features a guest host, Dr. Ryan Burke, who is an MWI fellow and the co-director of Project 6633, which we recently launched to explore the topic of polar security.
The US Army’s Special Forces groups are largely oriented toward specific regions, and 10th Group has a particular focus on Europe—which means they have a natural organizational interest in the Arctic region. Last year, Capt. Martin led a team that went to the high northern latitudes in Europe to train alongside Norwegian and Swedish forces. He shares some of what his team learned during that experience, and Col. Rauen talks about why the Arctic is an area of growing importance for 10th Group. They also discuss some of the especially unique challenges posed to special operations forces working in such an extreme environment.
10th Group and Project 6633 have also partnered to host an essay contest, inviting submissions that address the question of how American special operations forces can compete with near-peer adversaries in the polar regions. If you’re interested in entering the contest, you can find more details here.
The discussion is pretty incredible and highlights the challenges faced to basic communications which are things that I ‘knew’ but completely failed to grasp the depth and difficulties the extreme cold weather can create. If you are not already subscribed to this podcast you really should. I try to listen to as many of these that I can and this one certainly did not disappoint. You can follow this link or the instructions below.
Listen to the entire discussion below, and if you aren’t already subscribed to the MWI Podcast, be sure to find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or your favorite podcast app. While you’re there, please take a moment and give the podcast a rating or leave a review.