The Operational Arch

Colonel (retired) Kevin Benson joins us to discuss the campaign planning efforts for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and the initial invasion of Iraq in 2002. His experiences are captured in his recently published book Expectation of Valor: Planning for the Iraq War.

GEN (retired) Vince Brooks, former Commanding General of US Forces-Korea and US Army Pacific, joins us to discuss the value of SAMS in preparing senior military leaders for strategic engagements across the globe.

Dr. Jacob Stoil, an expert on the Israel/Hamas conflict, joins the Operational Arch to reflect on the opening of the conflict one year ago. This is the first installment of a multi-episode run discussing the start of the war and the lessons that the United States should be learning from it. Dr. Stoil is also the Chair of Applied History at West Point Modern War Institute, an Associate Professor of Military History at the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), Senior Fellow of 40th ID Urban Warfare Center, Assistant Director of the Second World War Research Group (North America), and Trustee of the US Commission on Military History, and a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare. Dr. Stoil received his doctorate in History from the University of Oxford. He holds a BA in War Studies and an MA in History of Warfare from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.

Rear Admiral (RET) Matthew Bell and Dr. Christine Duprow, both with the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies, Anchorage, Alaska, discuss the unique security challenges in the Arctic and what considerations operational planners need to take into account when planning and executing Arctic operations.