PODCAST · government
Underground Strategy
by Underground Strategy
Welcome to Underground Strategy Where military tactics, leadership, and real-world strategies meet a whole lot of banter. Hosted by Max Lauker (ex-Swedish Special Operations, Intelligence, and Private Security) and Tony Garcia (ex-SANDF with extensive field experience and academic insight), we break down the latest in military strategy while keeping things real, candid, and fun. Whether you're into the latest military insights or just here for smart conversations (and a few laughs), we've got you covered. Tune in for weekly episodes packed with expert breakdowns, candid chats, and a fresh take on what's happening in the world of strategy. It's all about staying sharp, having fun, and thinking a few moves ahead. No fluff, just real talk.
Episodes
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Helion Talks - Turning the Tide
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia is joined by award-winning historian and regimental historian for the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Dr. Spencer Jones. They discuss a few of his published works including Stemming the Tide: Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force...
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Helion Talks - Bad War Stories
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with retired U.S. Army infantry officer and Director for Strategic Innovation at US Space Command, Dr. Ben Zweibelson, about his new book, Bad War Stories. Zweibelson, a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, shuns both heroic...
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Helion Talks - Général Louis Dio
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with educator, archaeologist, and former World War I Centennial Commissioner Monique Brouillet Seefried, co-author of Général Louis Dio: The Wartime Epic of One of Free France's Greatest Soldiers, 1940-1946. As the goddaughter of General...
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Helion Talks - Point of Failure
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with historian and former civil servant Phil McCarty about his new book Point of Failure: British Brigadiers in France and Norway, 1940. Drawing on decades of government service and years of academic research, McCarty examines the careers,...
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Helion Talks – Infantry in Battle 1733–1783
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with historian and author Alexander S. Burns about his book Infantry in Battle, 1733–1783. Burns challenges the long-standing myth that 18th-century infantry were rigid automatons following rote drill. Instead, his work reveals a far more...
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Helion Talks – The Last Men Standing
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with writer and historian Gabriel Neville, author of The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution. Gabriel shares the remarkable story of one of Virginia’s most distinctive regiments — a force shaped by…
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Helion Talks – Air-to-Air Missiles
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with aerospace engineer, pilot, and author Bill Norton about his groundbreaking new series Air-to-Air Missiles: Development and Combat Across 80 Years. Drawing on decades of experience in flight testing and aeronautical engineering, Bill...
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Helion Talks – Soldiers and Civilians: Logistics in the British Civil Wars
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with historian Glenn Price, author of Soldiers and Civilians, Transport and Provisions: Early Modern Military Logistics and Supply Systems during the British Civil Wars 1638–1653. Glenn discusses the often-overlooked world of logistics and...
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Helion Talks – Bold in Battle: South African Stories from World War II
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with historian Karen Horn, author of Bold in Battle: South African Stories from the Second World War. Karen shares how her work brings to life the overlooked experiences of South African volunteers who served across Africa and Europe — men...
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Helion Talks – Whiskey on the Rocks
In this episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia speaks with historian and author Michael Fredholm von Essen about his new two-volume series Whiskey on the Rocks — an in-depth exploration of a tense Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and Sweden. Michael recounts the extraordinary events…
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Helion Talks – The Road to Helion
In this inaugural episode of Helion Talks, host Tony Garcia sits down with Helion & Company founder and CEO Duncan Rogers to explore the origins of one of the world’s leading military history publishers. Duncan shares how his lifelong passion for military history evolved into the founding of…
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Botswana & The BDF with Bafumiki Mocheregwa
A small state, big pressures—Botswana built its army late and cautiously. In this season finale, we sit down with Bafumiki Mocheregwa, a historian and academic at the University of Southern Mississippi who studies the Botswana Defense Force (BDF) and Southern African military history. The...
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Inside Ukraine: Accidental Ukrainians
In this episode, we’re joined by John Gordon Sennett, a U.S. Marine veteran, writer, and co-author of Accidental Ukrainians, a personal chronicle of war, survival, and adaptation from inside Ukraine. John and his wife Natasha Sennett moved to Kiev just before the invasion began. What started as a...
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Operation Boleas: The SANDF’s Trial by Fire
In this episode, we’re joined again by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Jean-Pierre Scherman of the South African National Defence Force—a returning guest with deep operational experience and a sharp eye for military history. This time, we turn to Operation Boleas: the 1998 intervention in Lesotho that...
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Operation Eland with Andy Balaam – Part 2
This week on the Underground Strategy Podcast, Max Lauker continues the conversation with Andy Balaam, former Selous Scout and veteran of some of the Bush War’s most daring missions. In Part 2, Balaam walks us through the attack on Nyadzonya itself — from the buildup on the parade ground to the...
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Operation Eland with Andy Balaam – Part 1
This week on the Underground Strategy Podcast, Max Lauker is joined once again by Andy Balaam, former Selous Scout and veteran of some of the Bush War’s most daring missions. After walking us through Operation Long John, Balaam now turns to Operation Eland. In August 1976, fewer than a hundred...
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This Is Not a Drill: Listener Q&A with Amos Fox
In this episode, we’re joined once again by military scholar and practitioner Amos Fox for a fast-paced listener Q&A tackling some of the most pressing questions in contemporary warfare. From the blurred lines between war and peace to the myth of maneuver and the limits of tech, this one hits…
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Why Soldiers Fight: History, Power, and the Ritual of War
In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Tarak Barkawi—an international relations scholar, military historian, and sharp critic of the way we often misunderstand war. We talk about everything from colonial troops and battlefield ritual to the power of memoirs and the global legacy of regimental...
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Tobruk & Beyond: South Africa’s Desert War
In this episode, we turn our focus to one of the most iconic campaigns of the Second World War—the battle for North Africa. From the strategic significance of the Suez Canal and Middle Eastern oil to the rise and fall of Rommel’s legend, the North African campaign shaped the course of the global...
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Inside Ukraine: War & Improv with Serhii – Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with Serhii Velychanskyi, we shift from combat to recovery—exploring how war leaves marks that can’t be seen from the outside, and how humor can help heal them. After serving on the front lines in Irpin and Kharkiv, Serhii transitioned into Ukraine’s Center for…
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Inside Ukraine: War & Improv with Serhii – Part 1
In Part 1 of our conversation with Serhii Velychanskyi, we follow his journey from civilian to frontline soldier in Ukraine’s 130th Territorial Defense Battalion—where he took part in the defense of Kyiv and the liberation of Irpin and Kharkiv. Serhii walks us through those early days of the...
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Fortress Britain 3 with Gordon Barclay
The third part of our Fortress Britain series takes us north, where Gordon Barclay joins us for a deep dive into Scotland’s defense plans during the Second World War—and how they’ve been misunderstood ever since. We talk about stop lines, airfield vulnerabilities, pillbox design, and the sheer...
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Zimbabwe’s Liberation with Takawira Chatambudza
In this episode, we explore the Zimbabwean liberation struggle—a war that redefined Southern Africa and left lasting political and military scars across the region. Takawira Chatambudza joins us to unpack the origins of the nationalist movements, the split between ZANU and ZAPU, and how their…
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Fortress Britain 2: Battlefield Archaeology
The second part of our Fortress Britain series takes us to the windswept beaches of northeast Scotland, where archeology meets military history. Tony and Alessandro link up with Bruce Mann—a senior Historic Environment Officer and real-world battlefield archaeologist—to walk through pillboxes,...
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Fortress Britain 1 with Andrew Chatterton
In the first of our Fortress Britain episodes, we step back from the secret guerrilla units and look at the bigger picture—how ready was the UK, really, to stop a German invasion in 1940? Andrew Chatterton returns to break down Britain’s physical defenses—from the rapid construction of stop lines...
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Inside Ukraine: Roman Kuzyuk - Inside the Wire
In this episode, we’re joined by Roman Kuzyuk, First Deputy CEO of Viysktorgservice and co-author of Management in Times of War. Roman brings a unique mix of experience to the table—from corporate governance and martial arts to frontline logistics within Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. We explore...
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Hitler’s South African Spies – Part 3
We’ve covered the Radleys, Rooseboom, and the Felix network—but in this final episode, the focus flips. What did the South African and British services actually know about these Nazi spy efforts? And more importantly—how did they respond? Evert Kleynhans takes us inside the counterintelligence…
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Spanish Civil War with Séan Scullion – Part 2
In the second half of our series, we turn to the aftermath—Franco’s victory, the cost of silence, and the contested memory that still divides Spain. Séan Scullion returns to chart Franco’s rise from the margins to dictator. We look at how he consolidated power, erased opposition through…
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Spanish Civil War with Séan Scullion – Part 1
In this first of a two-part series, we unpack the political collapse and brutal realities behind one of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century—the Spanish Civil War. Séan Scullion joins us to trace the long arc leading to war: empire in decline, broken reforms, class fractures, and...
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Hitler’s South African Spies – Part 2
Last episode, we met Rooseboom and the Radleys—Germany’s early spy recruits in South Africa, whose operations leaned more chaotic than covert. This time, the spotlight’s on a man with a much better spy name: Felix. Real name—Lothar Sittig. The one the British couldn’t quite pin down. After…
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UGS x Ben Zweibelson: Reconceptualizing War – Part 2
We're back with Ben Zweibelson for part two of our deep dive into Reconceptualizing War. This episode goes even further into the deep end: war paradigms, doomsday ideologies, radical structuralism, and the philosophical divide between Ukraine vs Russia and Israel vs Hamas. Ben lays out why some...
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UGS x Ben Zweibelson: Reconceptualizing War – Part 1
What if the problem isn’t that we misunderstand war—but that the frameworks we use to understand it are broken? In this episode, we sit down with Ben Zweibelson—veteran, theorist, and design troublemaker—for a deep dive into his massive new book Reconceptualizing War. This isn’t about doctrine...
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Hitler’s South African Spies – Part 1
In this episode, we focus on Hans Rooseboom and the Radley couple—three key figures in the early days of German espionage efforts in South Africa during the Second World War. From smuggling messages across borders to setting up radio links, their stories are strange, chaotic, and often reckless....
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UGS x Jack Bowsher: Tank Warfare in Burma – Part 2
We’re back with military historian Jack Bowsher for part two of our deep-dive into the Burma campaign. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, start there. In this episode, Jack walks us through the final stages of the campaign and gives us a preview of his upcoming book Thunder Run, focused on...
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UGS x Jack Bowsher: Tank Warfare in Burma – Part 1
We’re heading deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia to unpack one of the most overlooked and misunderstood campaigns of the Second World War—the Burma campaign. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, military historian and author Jack Bowsher joins Max and Tony to break down the brutal…
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The Quicksilver Captain – With Jacqueline Reiter
This week on Underground Strategy, we’re joined by historian and author Jacqueline Reiter to explore the extraordinary life of Sir Home Riggs Popham, the naval officer at the heart of her book Quicksilver Captain. From Buenos Aires to the Cape of Good Hope, Popham was everywhere—and often where…
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UGS Special: UGS x Durham - Peacekeeping – Part 2
This episode is part of a special collaboration with Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs. This student-led episode was created as part of the postgraduate module “Contemporary Challenges of United Nations Peacekeeping (SGIA48815)” for the Class of 2025. In Part 2,...
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Winston Churchill with Peter Caddick-Adams
Military historian and author Peter Caddick-Adams joins Underground Strategy for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, legacy, and the life of Winston Churchill. We explore Churchill’s wartime decisions, his eccentric personality, his genius for messaging, and the long arc of a career that...
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UGS Special: UGS x Durham SGIA - Peacekeeping – Part 1
In collaboration with Durham University, this special student-led episode explores contemporary challenges of United Nations peacekeeping. Recorded as part of the postgraduate module “Contemporary Challenges of United Nations Peacekeeping (SGIA48815)” at Durham’s School of Government and...
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Catching Up on Ukraine and Life with Kostiantyn Koshelenko
In this episode, Tony is catching up with Kostiantyn Koshelenko on the latest developments in Ukraine, updates on his books and ongoing work, and his personal experiences during the war. Kostiantyn Koshelenko’s Work Management in Times of War – https://amzn.to/4kF6rpY LinkedIn –...
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Alamo in the Ardennes – with John C. McManus
In this episode, military historian John C. McManus joins Underground Strategy to discuss his latest book, Alamo in the Ardennes, and the brutal early fighting during the Battle of the Bulge. We focus on the often-overlooked role of the 110th Infantry Regiment, whose desperate stand helped delay...
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U-Boats at the Cape - South Africa’s Naval Front in World War II
Few people think of South Africa when discussing World War II at sea, but its waters played a crucial role in the global conflict. Historian Evert Kleynhans returns to Underground Strategy to uncover the forgotten story of submarine warfare, coastal defenses, and strategic shipping routes off…
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The Changing War – Thru a Teacher’s Lens
How does war change, and what shapes its character over time? Historian and educator Will Gordon joins Underground Strategy to discuss the changing character of war, focusing on the period from 1792 to 1945. Through the lens of his teaching, Will explores how factors like leadership, doctrine,...
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Combat Morale and the Will to Fight with Tom Thorpe
What makes soldiers fight—and what makes them stop? Historian, tour guide, and podcaster Tom Thorpe joins Underground Strategy to break down combat morale, motivation, and the will to fight. We discuss the psychology of combat, small-unit cohesion, leadership, and how motivation shifts across...
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Selous Scouts’ Op Long John with Andy Balaam
Former Rhodesian Selous Scout Andy Balaam returns to Underground Strategy to break down Operation Long John, one of the most significant cross-border raids into Mozambique during the Bush War. With ZANLA gaining unrestricted access to Mozambique after the Portuguese withdrawal in 1975, Rhodesian...
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Lessons from Stalingrad and Beyond with Desmond Latham
Historian, journalist, and podcast host Desmond Latham returns to Underground Strategy for a wide-ranging discussion on warfare, history, and modern conflict. While Stalingrad was on the agenda, this episode moves beyond a single battle—covering urban warfare, women in combat, and the evolution…
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The 6th Airborne Division – Leadership, Combat, and the Legacy of Ham & Jam
Britain’s 6th Airborne Division played a critical role in the success of D-Day and the wider Normandy campaign. Historian and author Andrew Wheale joins the show to unpack how these elite troops were formed, trained, and led into battle. His book, Ham & Jam: 6th Airborne Division in Normandy -...
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UGS Special: Rethinking Warfare with Amos Fox - Part 2
In Part 2, we continue our hard-hitting conversation with Amos C. Fox, tackling the future of war, the myth of precision strike, and why doctrine often lags behind reality. How do modern militaries adapt—or fail to adapt—to the shifting landscape of conflict? And what lessons should we take…
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Mandela’s War: The ANC’s Military Wing with Thula Simpson
Today, we take a deep look into uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), and its pivotal role in South African history. Of course, no discussion about MK is complete without exploring the leadership and legacy of Nelson Mandela. Joining us to break it all down...
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UGS Special: Rethinking Warfare with Amos Fox - Part 1
Amos C. Fox joins Underground Strategy to challenge conventional thinking on modern warfare. From maneuver warfare’s shaky foundations to the realities of attrition, we dig into the strategic narratives shaping today’s conflicts. Are we fighting the wars we think we are, or just the ones doctrine...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to Underground Strategy
Where military tactics, leadership, and real-world strategies meet a whole lot of banter. Hosted by Max Lauker (ex-Swedish Special Operations, Intelligence, and Private Security) and Tony Garcia (ex-SANDF with extensive field experience and academic insight), we break down the latest in military strategy while keeping things real, candid, and fun.
Whether you're into the latest military insights or just here for smart conversations (and a few laughs), we've got you covered.
Tune in for weekly episodes packed with expert breakdowns, candid chats, and a fresh take on what's happening in the world of strategy.
It's all about staying sharp, having fun, and thinking a few moves ahead.
No fluff, just real talk.
HOSTED BY
Underground Strategy
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Underground Strategy have?
Underground Strategy currently has 82 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Underground Strategy about?
Welcome to Underground Strategy Where military tactics, leadership, and real-world strategies meet a whole lot of banter. Hosted by Max Lauker (ex-Swedish Special Operations, Intelligence, and Private Security) and Tony Garcia (ex-SANDF with extensive field experience and academic insight), we...
How often does Underground Strategy release new episodes?
Underground Strategy has 82 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Underground Strategy on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Underground Strategy?
Underground Strategy is created and hosted by Underground Strategy.
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