WarTalk: The View from AFRICOM

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Africa is the literal center of the world’s map and increasingly the center of gravity for ISIS, the manpower source for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the contested geopolitical ground where China builds bases and drops off free weapons. Our first active-duty guest pulls back the curtain on a combatant command that runs on 0.1% of the defense budget.LTG John W. Brennan Jr. is Deputy Commander of U.S. Africa Command and a 30-year career Special Forces officer, with command tours spanning 5th Special Forces Group, the anti-ISIS task force in Syria, and 1st Special Forces Command. He’s joined by ChinaTalk’s Justin, who served under Brennan as a young NCO in the Middle East.We discuss…How AFRICOM runs a counter-VEO away game on 0.1% of the defense budget by working “by, with, and through” partners“Putin’s Purse”: trafficking thousands of Africans onto the Ukrainian front lines under false pretensesThe Houthi–al-Shabaab pipeline and the threat triangle around Djibouti’s PRC naval baseBuilding an “alternate DIB in exile”: drone centers of excellence in Morocco, South African artillery, Namibian satellite radiosWhy Brennan wants to “declare jihad against proprietary data streams” and where AI actually helps a combatant commander decideListen now on your favorite podcast app.Jordan Schneider: Our first active-duty guest here on WarTalk, joined today by Lieutenant General John W. Brennan Jr., Deputy Commander of U.S. Africa Command, dialing in from Stuttgart. He used to boss Justin around for a while, and we’re looking forward to Justin perhaps getting a little bit of revenge today. …