I think it's important really to frame this conversation.

When we start thinking about what the U.S. military and the National Guard, what they're going to do in response to a COVID-19 outbreak in this case or any kind of other pandemic that we may see here in the future.

There are plans for how the DoD broadly will respond to, for instance, something like a

pandemic influenza or an infectious disease of some kind.

They do not only exercises where they respond to these things in a simulated manner, but

they also have a playbook.

Hey, welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Ambo, editorial director at MWI,

and this episode, I think, is quite possibly one of the most timely episodes we've had the opportunity to record and publish.

The past days and weeks have been a really crazy time.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted

lives and really sort of the life of the nation. And the response to that outbreak, or at least

one very specific component of it, is what we're going to talk about in this episode.

My guest is Dr. Ryan Burke. He is a former Marine officer and currently an associate professor

in the Department of Military and Strategic

Studies at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is also a non-resident fellow with the Modern War

Institute and has spent a lot of time researching, writing, and thinking about what's called

defense support of civil authorities. So with the COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop, I asked him to

come on the podcast and talk about the military's

potential role in the response. Before we get to the conversation, just a couple quick notes.

First, if you aren't yet following MWI on social media, find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,

and as of about a week ago, Instagram. It's a great way for us to stay in contact with the

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