Modern war, street by street.
Urban Warfare Project is a military-history and modern-warfare series focused on combat in dense, complex cities. John Spencer grounds many episodes in case studies, battlefield research, practitioner interviews, and doctrine-focused conversations.
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Urban Warfare Project is a serious, field-grounded series about the military problem of fighting in cities. John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at MWI and host of this podcast, uses the format to connect current battlefields with older cases and future doctrine. The show is tactical first. It cares about roads, bridges, tunnels, train stations, police forces, drones, command posts, and the human density that makes urban combat different. Episodes on Ukraine track how drones have changed movement around Kherson, Mykolaiv, Pokrovsk, and other contested areas. The discussion gets granular fast. Drone tunnels, net ceilings, beachheads, artillery observation, and stalemate all become part of the same operational picture. Gaza episodes shift underground, where tunnels affect intelligence, hostages, engineering, leadership protection, and the basic task of finding and destroying military infrastructure. Case-study episodes give the archive depth. The 2008 Mumbai attacks are discussed through target selection, urban geography, timing, and the paralysis of a major metropolis. Tal Afar is treated as an urban counterinsurgency case, with attention to sectarian violence, police reform, local leadership, and the way one city can magnify a wider war. The Battle of Kyiv appears as a decisive modern case, taught through terrain, storytelling, and the need to walk the ground. Interviews add institutional weight, from Yossi Cohen on a Mossad raid in Tehran to H.R. McMaster and David Petraeus on urban enemies, counterinsurgency, and the evolution of conflict. Annual wishlist episodes widen the lens to training centers, doctrine gaps, NATO efforts, and multinational military learning. The show is not casual geopolitics. It is built for listeners who want to understand how battles are planned, adapted, remembered, and taught. Its strength is the blend of field research, professional military education, and specific urban detail.
Made for: For military professionals, security scholars, military-history readers, and serious listeners who want city combat explained through cases, terrain, doctrine, and practitioner experience.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is its close attention to urban terrain and field research. It connects current wars, historic cases, and military doctrine without reducing city combat to general strategy talk.
As the world is increasingly urbanized, military forces must be prepared for cities to become battlefields. The Urban Warfare Project Podcast, from the Modern War Institute at West Point, features insightful discussions with scholars and practitioners as it sets out to explore the unique characteristics of urban warfare.
A four-lane drone tunnel in Kherson is your cue to retire the map-room generalizations.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded field report on how drone warfare is changing movement and protection in Ukrainian cities.
Urban Warfare Project follows Dr. Anthony Tingle, an independent researcher recently back from his ninth trip to Ukraine, through the altered conditions of urban war around Kherson and Mykolaiv.
A practical, candid wishlist for the institutions, doctrine, and training needed to prepare armed forces for urban warfare.
The Urban Warfare Project's annual Christmas wishlist turns a seasonal conceit into a practical look at what urban warfare researchers want military institutions to take seriously next.
A clear, grounded look at how coordinated attackers turned Mumbai's busy nighttime streets into a prolonged urban siege.
The Urban Warfare Project frames the 2008 Mumbai attacks as a sharp case study in how a small, coordinated force can use the density of a major city against it.
John Spencer frames Gaza's underground war through engineering, adaptation, and the problem still beneath the city.
The Gaza Metro is treated here as a hard military problem, shaped by engineering, intelligence, doctrine, equipment, and the physical strain of fighting underground.
A focused account of how patient intelligence work made the Tehran archive raid possible.
Mossad's Tehran archive raid is framed here less as a burst of action than as a patient intelligence operation, with the decisive turn coming when materials tied to Iran's nuclear program were found and seized.
Outnumbered units, remembered under fire.
Battle maps, war films, and patient context.
War news, tested against military reality.
Antique European history, read aloud.
Dr.
John Spencer hosts an annual Christmas wish list episode with urban warfare scholars Stuart Lyle and Jason Giroux, discussing their hopes for urban warfare advancements in the coming year.
This episode discusses the 2008 Mumbai attacks, analyzing the tactics used by the terrorists and the lessons learned for urban warfare and counterterrorism.
John Spencer discusses the tunnels of Gaza, the challenges they posed to the IDF, and the adaptations made in response.
Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen discusses his career and the secret war, including a daring 2018 raid in Tehran.
Retired Lieutenant General H.R.
Captain Ryan Danowitz proposes using driverless patrol cars to maintain coverage when a major incident draws officers away from the rest of a city.
Urban Warfare Project host John Spencer interviews Major Florin Herrera, a 2013 West Point graduate and Philippine Scout Ranger who fought in Marawi.
General David Petraeus discusses urban warfare and his career, including his role in the Iraq surge and co-authoring 'Conflict: The Evolution of War from 1945 to Ukraine'.
John Spencer lectures on the Battle of Kyiv, arguing it is the most decisive battle of the modern era, based on his research and ground visits in Ukraine.
John Spencer introduces Major Jason Giroux to discuss the 1943 Battle of Ortona and its relevance to modern urban warfare.
John Spencer interviews Major General Absalom Palid about the YAMAM's hostage rescue operations and the evolution of close quarters battle tactics.