How Smart Bombs Enable Dumb Wars

from The World Unpacked · host Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The Paveway bomb, invented by Texas Instruments in the 1970s, was the first truly precise munition. It revolutionized America’s air campaign in Vietnam and allowed whole new kinds of “limited” U.S. wars in Libya, Iraq, Serbia, and beyond.But Paveway’s true legacy was psychological: it seduced generations of U.S. leaders into believing that tactical precision creates strategic victories with few costs.Jeff Stern, an intrepid chronicler of modern conflict, tells this story in his new book The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare. He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explore the past, present, and future of precision warfare.

What this episode covers

Jeff Stern, an intrepid chronicler of modern conflict, tells this story in his new book The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare. He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explore the past, present, and future of precision warfare.

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How Smart Bombs Enable Dumb Wars

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This episode was published on January 30, 2026.

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