Phillips O’Brien, chair of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews and author of The Strategists: Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Hitler--How War Made Them and How They Made War, joins the show to discuss the nature of strategic decision making in World War II and beyond.▪️Times     •      01:50 Introduction    •      02:48 Germany 1st debunked    •     06:50 A matter of choices      •      08:20 Management styles      •     11:23 FDR the navalist       •      14:42 Strategic balance    •      16:52 The British Empire      •      18:58 Churchill the shapeshifter         •      26:42 Britain’s place    •      29:22 Casablanca     •      33:54 Making Hitler    •      38:43 Firepower + racial superiority     •      42:41 Delaying defeat    •      44:55 A childish view of war     •      46:50 Human decisions    •      48:28 Stalin the survivor    •      51:30 “Not nice people”Follow along on Instagram, X @schoolofwarpod, and YouTube @SchoolofWarPodcastFind a transcript of today’s episode on our School of War Substack