The General & the Journalist

General Christopher Cavoli was NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) until July 2025. He was responsible for the defence and security of 981 million people across 32 countries. Ooph.

While on a flying visit to London, he dropped into the General and the Journalist studio to see his old friend Patrick and get grilled by Tom on the UK's parlous defence expenditure.

But, mostly, he was here to talk about NATO and why, as a proud and patriotic American, he sees the Alliance as critical to America's own defence and security.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn
Guest: General Christopher Cavoli
Producer: Shabnam Grewal
Executive producer: Fiona Leach
Image: Getty
Clips: Fox news

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As America finds itself in a trapped quagmire of its own making, dragging its reputation and the world economy down with it. Patrick and Tom are joined by the former deputy assistant to President Trump, Fiona Hill, to chew over the lessons thrown up by the Iran war.

The US has confirmed its status as an unreliable partner, drone warfare has gone mainstream, and the world economy can be held to ransom with relative ease.

But it's in her capacity as one of the authors of last year's UK strategic defence review that Fiona's lessons from the Iran conflict most hit home.

'It's time to level with the population that the UK is under siege, it just doesn't know it'. The Government must prepare now for attacks on critical infrastructure and supply lines, and ensure the NHS could respond to a mass casualty event.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn
Guest: Dr Fiona Hill
Producer: Shabnam Grewal
Executive producer: Fiona Leach
Image: Getty
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Russia's nuclear threat to satellites, the prospect of a permanent lunar station, and the hopes of Artemis, Patrick and Tom could barely contain their space-geek excitement at speaking with General Whiting, head of US Space Command.

'There cannot be anybody on the planet who has more power in space than that man', gushed Patrick. And for good reason; war is now essentially a space domain, as the the American general explains, determining conflicts from Ukraine to Iran.

And space, more than any other theatre, is where the cold war with China is most acutely felt.

In a welcome note of optimism to close the conversation, General Whiting doubled-down on the benefits to both Europe and America of continued military cooperation, and paid fulsome tribute to his Nato allies.

We hope you love this conversion half as much as Patrick and Tom did!

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn
Guest: General Stephen Whiting, head of US Space Command
Producer: Micaela Arneson and Harry Stott
Executive producer: Fiona Leach
Image: Getty

Get in touch: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having first demanded that Iran 'open the fucking strait', President Trump followed up with a post vowing 'an entire civilisation will die tonight' if it did not do so.

But could any such order ever be legal, and would the American military even agree to carry it out?

Patrick and Tom chew over these and other questions, including whether it's time for America's long-standing allies to bail on it, if bombing a country into submission ever works, and what the sacking of the head of the US army tells us about the state of the country's military and, perhaps, its constitution.

But first up, in a week which saw possibly the finest rescue mission ever carried out, John Nichols recalls his experience in the first Gulf War of being shot down over enemy territory, attempting to evade capture, and waiting for the infantry to arrive.

Hosts: General Sir Patrick Sanders and Tom Newton Dunn
Guest: John Nichol
Producer: Micaela Arneson
Executive producer: Fiona Leach
Image: Getty

Get in touch: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For their Easter special, Tom and Patrick turn the entire show over to you. They answer as many listener questions as possible that have landed in the General & Journalist inbox since Christmas. Among them: whether Europe could defend itself in the events of an immediate Russian incursion, and whether the Iran war has changed Xi's calculus over taking Taiwan - and many more.

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders
Producer: Shabnam Grewal
Executive producer: Fiona Leach
Get in touch: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.