From Holy War to Hybrid War: What the Baltic Crusades Teach Us Today

Text the ATB Team! We'd love to hear from you! In the beginning of this episode of “At the Boundary”, host Jim Cardoso shares some highlights of the first ever GNSI International Security Experience Strategy Competition. This includes a short interview with a member of the winning team, UCF’s Canon Wesley, about the experience. This competition is the first of its kind at USF, and is a unique learning opportunity of undergraduate students interested in the national security field.  Then for the main interview, GNSI’s Tad Schnaufer, PhD, is joined by Gregory Leighton, author of “Ideology and Holy Landscape in the Baltic Crusades” to explore why medieval history still shapes today’s global security landscape.What began as a discussion of the Baltic Crusades quickly reveals deeper insights into how ideology, narrative, and identity influence modern conflicts, including NATO strategy, Russia’s worldview, and the war in Ukraine.Links from the Episode:• GNSI Announces Student Cohort for DC Experience• Tad and Guido’s articleGNSI on X GNSI on LinkedinGNSI on YouTubeAt the Boundary  from the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida,  features global and national security issues we’ve found to be insightful, intriguing, fascinating, maybe controversial, but overall just worth talking about.A "boundary" is a place, either literal or figurative, where two forces exist in close proximity to each other. Sometimes that boundary is in a state of harmony. More often than not, that boundary has a bit of chaos baked in. The Global and National Security Institute will live on the boundary of security policy and technology and that's where this podcast will focus. The mission of GNSI is to provide actionable solutions to 21st-century security challenges for decision-makers at the local, state, national and global levels. We hope you enjoy At the Boundary.Look for our other publications and products on our website publications page.