Shadow war – Can Britain face down the Russian threat?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Launching the UK’s latest strategic defence review, Keir Starmer pledged renewed spending on defence and vowed “everything we do will add to the strength of NATO”. Yet as NATO secretary general Mark Rutte calls for members to increase spending further to five percent of GDP on security, are Britain and its allies doing enough to secure the alliance’s future and deter the threat of an expansionist Russia? In the latest episode of This Is Not A Drill, Gavin Esler is joined by Sir Richard Shirreff, former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, to discuss the recommendations and implications of the defence review. • This episode of This Is Not A Drill is supported by Incogni, the service that keeps your private information safe, protects you from identity theft and keeps your data from being sold. There’s a special offer for This Is Not A Drill listeners – go to https://incogni.com/notadrill to get an exclusive 60% off your annual plan. • Support us on Patreon to keep This Is Not A Drill producing thought-provoking podcasts like this. Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Want to listen to our podcast without interruptions from advertising?
0:04.0	Well, sign up to back us on Patreon for a smooth, ad-free listening experience.
0:09.8	Follow the link in the show notes to find out how.
0:12.7	Hi, this is Ava from Vanta.
0:15.3	In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly.
0:19.7	And earning customer trust has never mattered more.
0:22.6	Banta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure with the most advanced AI automation and
0:28.3	continuous monitoring out there. So whether you're a startup going for your first stock two or ISO-27,001
0:33.9	or a growing enterprise managing vendor risk, Banta makes it quick, easy and scalable.
0:39.1	And I'm not to say that because I work here. Get started today at banta.com.
0:47.3	Throughout history, going back to ancient Greece and Rome, scholars, politicians and military leaders have repeatedly
0:55.3	echoed the same wisdom. If you want peace, prepare for war. NATO is in that preparatory phase
1:01.8	right now. The hope is, obviously, to contain and deter Vladimir Putin. But the equally obvious
1:07.8	problems remain. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland, Canada and other countries
1:12.6	are all trying to figure out how to manage the politics and the economics of rearmament,
1:17.6	plus the equally tricky job of managing the demands of our most unpredictable ally, Donald Trump.
1:24.6	On This is Not a Drill, we'll hear an expert view from a former NATO Deputy
1:28.9	Supreme Allied Commander Europe. I'm Gavin Esler, and this is Not a Drill. General Sir Richard Shireth has had a long and distinguished military career,
2:00.9	extending from his time as an infantry officer on the streets of Belfast during the troubles,
2:05.9	to becoming NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
2:09.4	He's also the author of 2017, War with Russia, subtitled An Urgent Warning.
2:15.1	The book considers how Russia could invade the Baltic states of Latvia,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.