Overheard is the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s new podcast series exploring the national security implications of intelligence activities, irregular warfare, and political warfare. 

Join Philip Wasielewski, director of FPRI’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and Nontraditional Warfare, as he discusses the past, present, and future of these activities with intelligence, military, and political practitioners to discover what is new at the intersection between the craft of intelligence and the military and political arts.

New episodes are available each month on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. To be the first to know about new episodes, please subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Twitter @FPRI. 

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What Is Irregular Warfare?

What is Irregular Warfare and why in the Pentagon is it traditionally a subject of cyclical phases of either great enthusiasm or inattention over the decades? Phil Wasielewski talks with retired Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Mark Grdovic, author of...

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Al Qaeda and the Islamic State: Still Alive and Fighting in the Sahel

Listen in to Overheard as Mike DeAngelo discusses with Phil Wasielewski how militant Islamic terrorist groups are waging parallel insurgencies across western Africa, the motivations fueling these conflicts, how  local African government responses sometimes just add more fuel to...

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Hybrid Warfare: A Conversation with Dr. Frank Hoffman

Almost two decades ago,  Frank Hoffman’s writings and scholarship were instrumental in popularizing the term Hybrid Warfare. Join him in a conversation with Phil Wasielewski as the two discuss the origins of this term and concept and debate how...

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Russian Political Warfare Operations in the Balkans

The western Balkans, including Bosnia and Kosovo, were the scene of some of the bloodiest warfare and atrocities in Europe post-World War Two until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Approximately twenty-five years after the last of the fighting in the...

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Where and Why to Spy?

  How does the Intelligence Community focus its collection and analysis? Retired CIA officers Norman Roule and Yong Suk Lee discuss how intelligence collection among America’s 18 separate intelligence agencies is planned and coordinated and how that collection is analyzed...

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Local Forces and Counterinsurgency Campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq

In this edition of Overheard, Phil Wasielewski talks to Dr. Arturo Munoz and Dr. Diane Zorri about the academic papers they presented at last year’s FPRI-sponsored conference on Lessons Learned from post-9/11 Irregular Wars. The three will discuss how...

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Russian Political Warfare and the Georgian and Moldovan Elections

In this episode, Phil Wasielewski follows up on the recent Overheard podcast Russia’s Other War in Europe to examine just how Russia worked to manipulate voting and voter sentiments this past October in the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Moldova....

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The Espionage Act versus the First Amendment

Was the June 2024 conviction of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for violating the Espionage Act a victory for national security or a defeat for freedom of the press? What are the rights and responsibilities that journalists and media organizations have about publishing classified information? CNN journalist...

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Russia’s Other War in Europe

The Overheard podcast discusses Russian political warfare operations and objectives in Georgia and Moldova with the people who are fighting back against Moscow’s efforts. Join Philip Wasielewski as he discusses Russia’s covert war in its former Soviet space with Batu Kutelia, David...

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Lessons Learned from the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004

On the 20th anniversary year of the legislation creating the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Phil Wasielewski discusses the effects of this law and what impact it has had on the intelligence community with former acting Director...

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