In Episode 126 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with David Kilcullen, a theorist and practitioner of guerrilla and unconventional warfare, and counterterrorism. David has amassed extensive operational experience over a 25 year career with the Australian and U.S. governments as an army officer, analyst, policy advisor and diplomat. He served in Iraq as senior counterinsurgency advisor to U.S. General David Petraeus and was senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. He has served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya, and Colombia. He's a Professor of International and Political Studies at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. He's also the author of five prize winning books on terrorism, insurgency, and future warfare, including his latest, “The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West.”  

This episode deals mainly with the evolution of warfare and the threats we currently face, including an extensive analysis of Chinese and Russian conventional and unconventional methods targeting the West. However, we couldn't ignore what's been happening in the world with the spread of the coronavirus—declared to be a global pandemic by the World Health Organization—and the emergency measures that are being put into place across every major developed and developing economy facing this growing epidemic. 

The second hour of Demetri and David’s conversation includes a deep-dive into Russiagate, as well as the types of strategies of liminal warfare being employed by Putin and the Russian Federation against America and the West. The two also speculate about how Western adversaries may inflict further damage upon them during the 2020 election, capitalize on internal divisions, refugee crises, as well as this latest, global pandemic.

You can access the second hour, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week’s episode through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers also gain access to our overtime feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Lt. Col. (res.) David Kilcullen is a theorist and practitioner of guerrilla and unconventional warfare and counterterrorism, with extensive operational experience over a 25-year career with the Australian and U.S. governments as an Army officer, analyst, policy adviser and diplomat. He served in Iraq as senior counterinsurgency advisor to U.S. General David Petraeus, was senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and has served in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and Colombia. Kilcullen serves on the Board of Advisors at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He's professor of international and political studies at the University of New South Wales, Canberra and is CEO and President of Cordillera Applications Group, a research and operations firm providing geopolitical analysis, remote observation, fieldwork and related support to government, industry and NGOs. He is the author of five prize-winning books on terrorism, insurgency and future warfare as well as numerous scholarly papers on urbanization, conflict and future warfare. Kilcullen received a PhD in politics from the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy in 2000.