The New Statesman

Donald Trump is grappling with the consequences of staging a military intervention in Iran without a clear plan.

Modern conflicts are often driven less by coherent national interest than by the instincts and ambitions of powerful leaders.

From the strait of Hormuz to Russian's invasion of Ukraine, to the tension between China and

Taiwan, miscalculation, overconfidence, and the enduring unpredictability of war are reshaping

global power.

This is Daily Politics from The New Statesman, and I'm Olly Doug Moore.

In today's episode, I'm going to hand over to my colleague, the New Statesman's senior

editor of global affairs, Katie Stallard.

Katie discusses the nature of modern warfare with Phillips O'Brien, American historian

and professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews.

Phillips O'Brien, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Let's start with, I know you've

written recently about some of the lessons in terms of U.S. military capabilities from this war.

So what are the most important things you think

we're learning so far about the reality of US capabilities?

Well, I mean, what we've learned is they've got to plan things a lot better.

So if you're going to use military force,

it's incumbent upon you to have a plan,

not that it will work out, but that a set of strategic

goals that you're trying to meet and have at least a coherent idea of how you might get there.

I don't know what we're going to find out historically, but looking at what we've seen,

I don't think we can say that this plan was started or this operation was started with

...