Lessons In Urban Warfare, From Syria to Taiwan | John Spencer

Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw

John Spencer is the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He joined Rep. Crenshaw to explore the historical evolution of urban combat and analyze modern strategies for conquering and defending cities. John discusses how urban warfare is playing out in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Ukraine. And he envisions the most likely scenarios for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, along with potential U.S.-Mexico counterinsurgency efforts against the cartels.

• The evolution of urban warfare • Regime change and chaos in Syria • Why willpower often trumps raw numbers • Hezbollah’s decimation and its implications • Israeli airstrikes in post-Assad Syria • “The way you take a city is psychologically.” • Russia’s miscalculation in Kiev and Ukraine’s resistance • How Gaza’s conflict was unlike any other • Why banning missiles could result in more civilian casualties • Debunking the “Zero Dark Thirty” Fallacy • “Is that Batman??” • Why the pager operation wouldn’t have worked in Gaza • More common misconceptions: The Abacus, Vampire, and Peace Table Fallacies • Taiwan’s defenses and civilian preparation for invasion • U.S.-Mexico counterinsurgency strategies to combat cartels

John Spencer currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast. He also serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Madison Policy Forum, a New York based think-tank. He is a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.

He is the author of three books: Understanding Urban Warfare, (Howgate Publishing, 2022), Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War (Potomac Books, 2022; Winner of the 2023 Gold Medal Award, Best Military History Memoir, Military Writers Society of America), The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender (John Spencer, 2022).

Follow him on X at @SpencerGuard.