John Spencer
Modern War Institute
West Point, NY, United States
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Past articles by John:
Twelve Months of War in Ukraine Have Revealed Four Fundamental Lessons on Urban Warfare
This week marks one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine kicked off a war that has offered up a wide range of lessons on the conduct of large-scale combat operations […] → Read More
Russia's Military Technology and Urban Warfare
In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project Podcast, John Spencer is joined by Samuel Bendett. He is an analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses where he is a […] → Read More
Leopards Into the Fray: How Will German Tanks Affect the Battlefield Balance in Ukraine?
The announcement this week that Germany will send tanks to Ukraine has dominated headlines. The momentousness of this decision is difficult to overstate. Germany was the European country most resistant […] → Read More
The Italian Stalingrad
In this episode of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast, John Spencer is joined by Major Jayson Geroux, an urban warfare instructor and scholar who has done extensive research on the […] → Read More
The Evolution of Hostage Rescue Tactics: Understanding the Significance of the Mother's Bus Attack
On the morning of March 7, 1988, three members of the Palestine Liberation Organization hijacked a bus full of Israeli women traveling to work near the town of Dimona, Israel. […] → Read More
An Urban Warfare Expert's Christmas Wish List
Christmas is a time for gift giving. But what if the person you’re shopping for is an urban warfare specialist? What capabilities should you be looking for? That’s the subject […] → Read More
A Firsthand Account of the Battle of Mariupol
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, one of the Russian forces’ first targets was the city of Mariupol, located in the southeastern part of the country along the coast of […] → Read More
The Battle of Jenin
The Battle of Jenin took place in April 2002 and was a key battle in the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Operation Defensive Shield. In this episode of the Urban Warfare Project […] → Read More
How Much Difference Can One Person Make?
More than 1.3 million active duty service members. A million more in the reserve components. Eight hundred thousand civilians working for the Department of Defense. Well over a million Americans […] → Read More
Lessons from the First Battle of Fallujah: An Urban Warfare Project Case Study
On March 31, 2004, four American contractors from the private military company Blackwater bypassed a Marine checkpoint in two trucks and drove into the city of Fallujah. They likely had […] → Read More
Round 2 of the World’s Only Urban Warfare Planners Course
In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project Podcast, John Spencer welcomes back Brig. Gen. Robert Wooldridge, the deputy commanding general for operations of the 40th Infantry Division, California Army National Guard. In July, the 40th Infantry Division held the second iteration of the world’s only course specifically designed for division and brigade staff officers and […] → Read More
Studying the Battle of Kyiv, Part 1
In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project Podcast, John Spencer is joined by retired Colonel Liam Collins. The former director of the Modern War Institute, he also served as a defense advisor to Ukraine from 2016 to 2018. Last month, John and Liam traveled independently to Ukraine to study the Battle of Kyiv, which […] → Read More
Waterworld: How Ukraine Flooded Three Rivers to Help Save Kyiv
Off the eastern coast of central Greece sit high cliffs that once served as a narrow access point from the sea to its cities. Popular legend has it that in 480 BCE a small band of Spartan warriors, led by King Leonidas, defended the mountain pass against a much larger Persian army. The defense of […] → Read More
Why Urban Warfare is the Hardest Type of Warfare
Urban warfare is the hardest type of warfare that any nation can ask its military to conduct. It is more difficult, more complex than any other—not least because urban terrain is not neutral. But to understand why these are more than just platitudes requires a detailed examination of the many particular challenges presented by dense […] → Read More
A New Way of Combined Arms Urban Warfare Training
In January 2022, John Spencer traveled to the United Kingdom to observe a British Army Warfighting Experiment. The experiment was one of many that allows the British Army to partner with the innovation community and industry to explore technological possibilities for addressing the specific challenges of urban warfighting. In this episode of the Urban Warfare […] → Read More
The Israeli Way of Urban Warfare
In this episode of MWI’s Urban Warfare Project Podcast, John Spencer is joined by Brigadier General (res.) Meir Finkel, the head of research and former director of the Dado Center for Interdisciplinary Military Studies / IDF J3. He is the author of numerous books, including Studies in Generalship: Lessons from the Chiefs of Staff of […] → Read More
Social Media and the War in Ukraine: The Walter Report
Social media has played a sizeable role during the war in Ukraine. Not only are various platforms being used for information campaigns by both sides, social media tools like Twitter are the way many people around the world are watching the war unfold. Almost immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Walter Lekh, a Ukrainian doctor […] → Read More
Ukrainians should be on the lookout for a new battlefield enemy: Disease
Why hand sanitizer could prove to be just as crucial to victory as antitank weapons. → Read More
What Will the Battle of Kyiv Look Like?
From the very beginning of the war in Ukraine that was kicked off by Russian forces’ invasion on February 24, the strategic goal for Russia has been clear: remove the current government and replace it with a Russian-friendly regime. Because cities are the economic and political centers of power for nations, it is no surprise […] → Read More
Studying the "Miniature Stalingrad": the Battle of Ortona
“For some unknown reason,” reported the New York Times on Christmas Day 1943, “the Germans are trying to stage a miniature Stalingrad in hapless Ortona.” The fighting in this seaside town on Italy’s Adriatic coast was so fierce, so intense, and so challenging that the only way to capture the realities of the urban combat […] → Read More