3/5/26 Robert Pape on the Limits of Air Power

Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews

Scott Horton

News, Politics

4.8 • 989 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scott interviews author and scholar Robert Pape about the insights he’s gained from his decades of extensive research into the strategic effectiveness of air power in war. Pape argues that, while modern precision bombs are remarkable at carrying out their tactical functions, they alone are not enough to win wars. And further, the obsession with tactical bombing campaigns can distract decisionmakers from the political dynamics that primarily determine how wars end. Discussed on the show: Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War by Robert A. Pape The Escalation Trap Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science and Director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats and the author of Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Follow him on Twitter @ProfessorPape Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/47jMtg7 (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/3tgMCdw Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/3HRufs0 Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott’s full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Incorporated https://rrbi.co Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com You can also support Scott’s work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/https://scotthortonshow.com or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ladies and gentlemen of the press have been less than honest, reporting to the American people, what's going on in this country?
0:11.0	Because the babies are making it.
0:13.0	We're dealing with Hitler Revisited.
0:15.0	This is the Scott Horton Show, Libertarian Foreign Policy, mostly. When the the president doesn't that means that it is
0:24.0	not only we're going to take out seven countries they're doing negotiate now end this war and
0:33.6	now here's your host, Scott Porton.
0:44.0	All right, you guys, on the line here, I've got Robert A. Pape. He is a professor at the University of Chicago, or at least last time I talked to him.
0:49.3	Okay, good, still there.
0:50.9	Still there.
0:51.8	Yep.
0:52.3	And so we all know him because he's in my books.
0:56.1	And Fool's Aaron and Enough Already and from his own great books,
1:00.4	dying to win and cutting the fuse about the strategic logic of suicide terrorism
1:05.1	in the war on terrorism and all that.
1:07.3	But before that, his scholarship was on air power and its efficacy or lack thereof.
1:15.5	And the book is called Bombing to Win.
1:18.4	Ah, you see where Dying to Win came from.
1:20.0	That's exactly right.
1:21.4	Uh-huh.
1:22.2	So, boy, now that I think about it, we've been doing this about 20 years.
1:27.3	So welcome back to the show, Bob.
1:28.5	How are you?
	...

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