How did George Washington overcome virtually every material disadvantage to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War? How did Ulysses S. Grant turn the tides of the Civil War in the Union’s favor in the crucial year of 1864? How did Dwight Eisenhower manage the overwhelming personal burden of leading the Allied invasion of Europe? The answers to these questions share remarkable continuities, and together they offer a picture into the requirements of successful supreme command at war—and offer lessons that will shape the outcomes of America’s future wars. To explore them, John Amble is joined on this episode by retired Lieutenant Colonel Matt Cavanaugh, author of the book Who Wins Wars: Lessons in Leadership, Power, and Supreme Command from Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

• (00:00:04) - What Makes Strategic Leadership So Successful
• (00:00:45) - Discussion about Supreme Command
• (00:02:05) - Matt Wilkie on Supreme Command
• (00:02:36) - From Third Base to Home
• (00:04:50) - Defending the Supreme Commander
• (00:09:00) - The Strategic Decisions of Great Generals
• (00:19:55) - George Washington and Military Decisions
• (00:30:31) - Empathy in the Supreme Command
• (00:42:36) - In the Army: The Need for Mentorship
• (00:45:40) - Supreme Command: AI Never Replacing Human Judgment
• (00:48:24) - What Right Looks Like in 4 Words
• (00:51:22) - Who Wins Wars: The History Podcast

NATO just wrapped up its 2026 summit in Ankara, Turkey. Over two days of meetings and other events, the leaders of the alliance's thirty-two member states discussed a range of issues and challenges facing the alliance. But what did we actually learn from the summit? In a period that has been marked by intra-alliance friction, were there signs of closing fissures or do divisions remain? And were there indicators of how much progress members have made toward meeting their defense spending commitments? More importantly, how much has boosted spending translated into improvements in defense capabilities? To explore those questions and more, John Amble is joined on this episode by Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

For years of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, US Army forces, along with their joint and coalition counterparts, benefits from a logistics enterprise that ensured every supply need was met. That enterprise—extending from installations at home, through sea and air lines, and all the way to small units in contact—operated largely without disruption by enemy forces. A major war with a peer adversary, however, will present a very different scenario, in which logistics activities will be contested across the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war. To discuss the challenges that will entail and explore what can be done now to improve the resilience and reliability of US and allied logistics systems, John Amble is joined on this episode by Ron Ti. A retired Australian Army officer with extensive practical experience, he earned a PhD researching combat logistics on the modern battlefield and is the author of a forthcoming book on the subject.

The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.