Gen. Donahue on Deterring Russia in Europe

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

Gen. Christopher Todd Donahue, who leads U.S. Army Europe and Africa as well as Allied Land Command, joined Ryan for a discussion at WOTR HQ. For the first five minutes, they chat about his Army story, his time in the Ranger Regiment, before discussing how the Army Transformation Initiative is unfolding in Europe, from maneuver brigades, new technologies, command-and-control, drone and counter-drone operations, and more. Donahue previews how the U.S. Army has deliberately identified lessons from the war in Ukraine and how the Army fits into the joint fight.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.
0:13.9	My name is Ryan Evans, the founder of War on the Rocks. In this episode, I spoke with General
0:17.9	Christopher T. Donahue, commanding general of U.S. Army, Europe, Africa, and the
0:21.5	commander of Allied Land Command. We spoke about how the U.S. Army and its NATO partners
0:26.0	are better preparing to deliver upon security in Europe and how the Army Transformation Initiative
0:31.6	is already unfolding to prepare the Army for the future. Enjoy the show. So why did you join the army? Well, the first thing is,
0:40.1	this goes to the way back machine probably. Most people don't know this, but we used to deliver
0:46.0	newspapers. And when I was a young kid, right, like 10 years old, maybe 11 years old, I can't
0:52.9	remember. But when we invaded Grenada, when I woke up to
0:56.6	deliver the papers the next day, I went outside, picked up my papers, I had to deliver, and on the
1:01.6	front page was Point Salinas, and it said U.S. Army Rangers have jumped into Grenada. Now, of course,
1:08.3	I immediately went inside and woke my dad up at like, you know,
1:11.2	4.30 in the morning and said, Dad, I think we're at war. And he was like, I think we're okay. I don't think we're at war. But I saw that and I was like, man, who are these Army Rangers? Pretty amazing. And long story short, you know, go off to West Point and I said, I had one goal in the Army to be a Ranger company commander
1:28.3	and I was a lieutenant, platoon leader, and a company commander in the Ranger Regiment. So I self-fulfilled
1:35.3	what I wanted to get accomplished way back then. What year did you graduate West Point?
1:40.4	1992. And who were some of your peers in that class that we might know about? Oh, incredible
1:45.3	classmates. Sean Burnaby, you know, my DCG, Trevor Brennan Camp, Michelle Schmidt, her and I were
1:52.5	operations officer and intelligence officer in the same unit. Omar Jones, the MCOM commander,
1:58.3	Phil Ryan, a great, great special operations aviator, Jim Eisenhower,
2:03.5	who was going to do great things in the Army and continue to go and do things. I mean,
2:07.5	there's multiple, multiple more. Joe Berger, I mean, you name it. We have an incredible class.
2:13.2	Where are some of your strongest memories from Ranger School?
	...

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