Aether: The Podcast

In Episode 4 of Season 2, we visit with Major Maria Patterson and Dr. Bradley Podliska about their spring 2024 War on the Rocks article concerning US Air Force officer promotion boards. The article, based on Major Patterson's research while a student at Air Command and Staff College, provides recommendations to improve this critical process.

In this episode, we visit with Chris James, the author of "The Cost of Space System Classification," in our special edition of Aether, featuring Space PME content, released in December 2023. He discusses how adapting regulations, leveraging commercial machine learning, and applying minimal financial resources, can help the USSF overcome acquisition challenges related to overclassification, barriers to entry, and antiquated classified systems and regulations.

Our second season of the Aether Podcast kicks off with Ben Staats discussing his article in our special December 2023 issue focused on spacepower in professional military education, "Space Weaponization: Reexamining the Historical Air Analogy to Space.

In the 10th and final episode of Season 1, we visit with Air Force Colonel and combat pilot Dave Blair about his article, "An Anthem of the Long War," in our fall issue dedicated to the topic of moral injury. In a poignant, but forthright discussion, Dave shares the effect killing has had on him, and the broader impact this requirement of military service has on women and men who choose to serve our nation, regardless of their proximity to the target, or even if they themselves were not the trigger puller. The topic is grim, but he leaves us with notes of hope as we prepare to support the next generation of military members who may have to kill on behalf of our country.

In Episode 9 of the Aether podcast, we visit with Dr. Ron Gurantz about his article, cowritten with Randy Carlson, "Clausewitz in Space: Friction in Space Strategy and Operations" from our Fall 2022 issue. The military must account for four sources of friction in space warfare and be prepared to contend with certain tradeoffs when mitigating these sources of friction.

In Episode 8 of the Æther podcast, we visit with Dr. Peter Layton, author of “Systemizing Supply Chain Warfare” in our Summer 2023 issue. Dr. Layton discusses twentieth-century airpower theories as they relate to contemporary supply chains, which he characterizes as restricted complexity systems. We talk about his proposal for supply chain warfare, including leveraging elements of a supply chain system against itself, additive manufacturing on the front line, wargaming, and the assistance of AI and machine learning.

In our 7th episode, we visit with Major Joshua Dryden about his Æther Spring 2023 article, “Iran, Israel, and the Struggle for the Skies over the Middle East.” Major Dryden discusses his research on the evolution of Israeli and Iranian airpower strategy and capability since the early 2000s, the Israeli concept of MABAM, or “campaign between wars,” and the efficacy of this strategy and of airpower writ large in the struggle for air dominance in the region.

In Episode 6 of the podcast, we visit with Dr. Kelly Atkinson about her article in our spring 2023 issue, "Mission Injury: The Force after Afghanistan." She discusses the notion of mission injury--related to but separate from moral injury--which engages feminist critical theory in considering servicemembers' mental and emotional well-being in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Interview with General Ron Fogleman, USAF, retired on John Andreas Olson's edited volume, Airpower Pioneers: From Billy Mitchell to Dave Deptula.

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Join us as we visit with Major Tom Burks, USAF, about his Fall 2022 article, "Military Necessity: Policy-Capability Tensions." He argues conducting cyberspace operations outside of armed conflict but consistent with LOAC principles limits USCYBERCOM to a best-tool approach to national security. Reframing conflict as strategic competition restores military necessity’s flexibility.

On September 29, 2022, we visited with Dr. Anna Batta of Air War College and Dr. Ginta Palubinskas of West Virginia State University and author of "NATO at 70: Peace in a Changing Security Environment," in our Summer 2022 issue, about Russia's war against Ukraine, the mood in Hungary and Lithuania this summer, and implications for NATO, Europe, and the world.

The first Episode of Æther: The Podcast features Dr. Chris Cain, the first editor of Strategic Studies Quarterly, discussing the inaugural issue of Æther: A Journal of Strategic Airpower & Spacepower.