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The world's most critical shipping lanes are becoming battlegrounds as Iran targets commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis threaten shipping through the Bab al Mandab, and Russia and Ukraine wage an escalating maritime war in the Black Sea. Generation Jihad host Bill Roggio is joined by Dr. Sal Mercogliano, host of What's Going On With Shipping?, to discuss how these conflicts are disrupting global trade, driving up energy prices, and threatening the freedom of navigation. They examine Iran's efforts to undermine US-led shipping operations in the Persian Gulf, the Houthis' renewed campaign against Saudi shipping, and the mounting economic costs of keeping vital sea lanes open. In the Black Sea, Ukraine is targeting Russia's commercial shipping and maritime infrastructure, while Russia retaliates against Ukrainian ports and merchant vessels, including ships operating near NATO territory. Bill and Sal discuss how drones, missiles, and economic warfare are transforming naval operations, the challenges facing the US Navy in sustaining a prolonged maritime campaign, and the growing danger that these seemingly separate conflicts could converge into a wider war.

Three years after Hezbollah entered the war against Israel, the Iranian-backed terrorist group has suffered devastating losses, including much of its senior leadership, command structure, and military infrastructure. But Hezbollah remains a formidable force, and its decision to join Hamas's war against Israel may prove to be one of the greatest strategic miscalculations in the group's history. FDD Senior Fellow David Daoud joins Generation Jihad host Bill Roggio to assess Hezbollah's ability to survive, rebuild, and avoid a strategic defeat despite Israel's significant tactical victories. They examine how Hezbollah exploits Lebanon's sectarian political system, relies on its Shiite support base, and leverages political allies and social networks to preserve its arsenal and buy time to regenerate.

Five years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban is stronger than ever, Al Qaeda continues to operate under its protection, and Pakistan is learning the hard way that supporting jihadists comes with a price. Bill Roggio is joined by retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and Long War Journal contributor Will Selber to assess the state of the Taliban's Islamic Emirate, the fractured and ineffective Afghan resistance, and the continued presence of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State's Khorasan Province. They also dismantle the persistent myth of a divided Taliban and examine why the jihadist regime faces little meaningful opposition to its rule. Across the border, Pakistan is confronting a resurgent Taliban insurgency fueled by the same jihadist networks its military and intelligence services spent decades nurturing. Roggio and Selber examine the growing threat from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP), the emergence of former Pakistani allies among its enemies, and Islamabad's increasingly futile reliance on airstrikes inside Afghanistan. The irony is difficult to ignore: Pakistan helped the Taliban defeat the United States and overthrow the Afghan government, only to find itself battling an insurgency operating from Taliban-controlled territory. The question is no longer whether Pakistan's jihadist strategy has backfired, but how much worse the consequences will become.

Was Operation Enduring Freedom—the US invasion of Afghanistan launched in October 2001 to kill or capture Al Qaeda’s leaders and oust the Taliban from power—a success or a failure? With the Taliban currently in control of Afghanistan and Al Qaeda operating training camps throughout the country, the answer seems obvious. Generation Jihad host Bill Roggio, an FDD senior fellow and the editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, talks with terrorism expert Thomas Joscelyn about the failures of Operation Enduring Freedom and how they cascaded into the terrorism threats we now face from Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other jihadist groups. Bill and Tom also discuss Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza, and reports that he may be alive and at the helm of Al Qaeda, as well as Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa’s refusal to answer a question about whether he renounced his oath of allegiance to Al Qaeda.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Washington, shaking hands and smiling as the People’s Liberation Army prepares for aggression in the Pacific. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to try to play the victim while continuing his brutal invasion of Ukraine. The regime in Iran is severely weakened but continues to menace commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. And North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is responding to American concessions and South Korean conciliation with more ballistic missile launches. Some Americans are familiar with the threats China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea pose individually. But how are these adversaries helping each other, and how does American action or inaction and strength or weakness in one region or against one adversary impact the others? To explore these questions and more on Generation Jihad, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) H.R. McMaster and Ryan Brobst join guest host Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). H.R. McMaster is a former US national security advisor to President Trump and serves as chair of the Advisory Board for CMPP, where Ryan Brobst is deputy director.

Hezbollah no longer owns every road in South Lebanon. In mixed villages that kept the group out and brought the Lebanese Army in, daily life looks almost normal—and Israel’s deployment in Lebanon bends around instead of through them. This could mark the start of Lebanon asserting its sovereignty in the south, spelling the beginning of the end of Hezbollah’s demise. But given Beirut’s inertia, it’s equally plausible Hezbollah will adapt and wait it out. Generation Jihad guest host David Daoud, an FDD senior fellow focused on Lebanon and Hezbollah, talks with Lina Khatib, an associate fellow in Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, about her July trip through that pocket, why the 2006 war never put the army in charge of the border, and whether Beirut can take Hezbollah’s weapons now that the group is weaker and Assad is gone. This episode digs into the Lebanese military’s limited seizure of weapons, the fear that a forced disarmament will spark another civil war, and the Shiite community that Hezbollah still dominates through sincere conviction, material benefits, and intimidation. Daoud and Khatib ask whether Hezbollah is limping toward the exit or adapting in the stasis, and whether talks with Israel are the start of a real peace—or just another pause before the next war.

Conflicts continue in Europe and the Middle East, and Beijing is sprinting to prepare for potential aggression in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States confronts a military munitions crisis—but few Americans understand what is really going on. What is the true nature of America’s munitions crisis? What are the consequences of the current challenges? How did we get into this position? And what must we do to build the defense industrial base production capacity and munitions arsenals that the US needs? Generation Jihad guest host Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, is joined by Colonel (Ret.) Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to discuss these and related questions. Cancian, who formerly worked on defense budget strategy, war funding, procurement programs, and more at the Office of Management and Budget and spent over three decades in the US Marine Corps, draws on that experience to discuss the true state of America’s defense industrial base and arsenal.

The UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team’s latest 1267 report traces a $50 million ransom from JNIM in the Sahel to Al Qaeda’s senior leadership, puts the Islamic State at a “lower ebb” after the killing of two of its deputy leaders, and finds that about two-thirds of both jihadist groups’ fighters are now in Africa. It also draws attention to risks from cross-border hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan and from jihadists released en masse from detention in Syria. Generation Jihad guest host Edmund Fitton-Brown, FDD senior fellow and former coordinator of the UN Monitoring Team, talks with Colin Smith, the Monitoring Team’s current coordinator, about what the latest release shows about Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their affiliates, plus how the report is built and the challenges of keeping the spotlight on jihadist groups. Colin also explains the background to the UN’s counterterrorism work, including his own team and the wider UN CT architecture. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n26/171/00/pdf/n2617100.pdf

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are engaged in “unprecedented” cooperation, and that is empowering Russian aggression in Ukraine and making the regime in Iran more lethal and resilient. Axis security cooperation is iterative and flowing in both directions across the bilateral relationships within the Axis, making its militaries more formidable and eroding the margin of safety for Americans and their partners. What is the latest in Ukraine? How are Axis members supporting Putin’s invasion? What role have drones played in Ukraine and the Middle East? How are Moscow and Tehran cooperating, and what are the consequences? What is the status of US and partner air defenses and lessons learned? And what changes are afoot when it comes to US military posture in Europe? Generation Jihad guest host Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), discusses these questions and more with John Hardie, deputy director of FDD’s Russia program, and Cameron McMillan, senior research analyst at FDD’s CMPP.

Twenty-five years after 9/11, analysts still can't agree on whether Al Qaeda is a spent force or a resurgent threat. Generation Jihad's Bill Roggio and co-host Will Selber speak with guest Graeme Wood, staff writer at The Atlantic, and unpack his new article on the group's uncertain legacy. The conversation digs into Al Qaeda's true objectives, the blurred line between its "core" and its regional affiliates, and mounting evidence of the group's expanding footprint inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The three debate how to judge Al Qaeda's 25-year campaign — and whether Syria's new president, a former Al Qaeda commander, signals the jihadist group's decline or its evolution in the Long War.

The latest report by the United Nations Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team states that Africa has become the main battlefield for both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, that Al Qaeda’s senior leadership remains marginalized, and that Al Qaeda is collaborating with the Afghan Taliban and TTP to project threats into Pakistan. Generation Jihad’s Bill Roggio and Edmund Fitton-Brown, FDD senior fellow and former coordinator of the UN Monitoring Team, unpack the new 1267 report on the global state of the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, and their affiliated groups. They challenge the report’s claim that Al Qaeda’s leadership is marginalized, highlight a $50 million ransom that strengthened its network, and examine what a UN assessment can and cannot reveal about the Long War’s current threat. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n26/171/00/pdf/n2617100.pdf

The weapons flowing through the Axis of Aggressors don't move in one direction—they boomerang. In the second installment of this two-part episode, Generation Jihad's Bill Roggio continues his conversation with Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power, and Ryan Brobst, CMPP deputy director, digging deeper into the mechanics of authoritarian convergence. Bowman and Brobst trace how Iran's Shahed drone became a shared arsenal—copied by China, produced by North Korea, and returned to Tehran in upgraded form after Russia improved it on the battlefields of Ukraine. They break down the munitions crisis draining US and allied stockpiles, explain why North Korea may be in its strongest strategic position in decades, and unpack the "trilateral tango" between Kim Jong-un, Beijing, and Moscow. The conversation closes with a five-line grand strategy for countering the axis—and a sobering warning about what happens if Washington waits for the next crisis to act. For Part One, check out: https://www.fdd.org/podcasts/2026/08/11/china-russia-iran-north-korea-inside-the-axis-of-aggressors/

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea aren't just aligned in rhetoric—they're actively coordinating to erode American military, economic, and cyber dominance. In this episode, Generation Jihad's Bill Roggio sits down with Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, and Ryan Brobst, CMPP deputy director, to unpack the real-world mechanics behind this dangerous authoritarian convergence. From joint military exercises and sanctions evasion to weapons transfers and cyber warfare collaboration, Bowman and Brobst break down exactly how members of “the Axis of Aggressors” prop each other up on the world stage—and what it will take for the US to counter a group of nations that no longer play by the old rules of great power competition.

The US is losing leverage in Somalia — and may be about to repeat the mistake in Mali. Bill Roggio and Caleb Weiss, a Long War Journal editor and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, break down why Washington's frustration with Mogadishu is putting critical African Union support at risk, what that means for Al Shabaab's grip on southern Somalia, and whether Puntland and Emirati-backed forces can hold the line without it. They also discuss Mali, where renewed US airstrikes against JNIM raise a familiar question: what do strikes accomplish without a ground strategy or political reform? Bill and Caleb trace the pattern across the Sahel before tackling the bigger debate over whether Al Qaeda is dead or everywhere, and why our visibility into the network may be at an all-time low.

Former Marine and New York Times journalist Thomas Gibbons-Neff recently returned to Afghanistan to find accountability and closure, specifically seeking out Mullah Abdul Rahim Gulab, a Taliban commander he had battled in 2010. His article, “Why I Sought Out a Taliban Commander I Had Fought,” inspired Generation Jihad’s Bill Roggio to seek out Will Selber, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, the co-founder of the Grumpy Combat Veteran + Friends media network, and an Afghanistan veteran, to discuss the Times article. Bill and Will break down the merits of Gibbons-Neff’s recent tour in country, his struggle with his experience as a soldier, where his investigation lacked depth and due diligence, and whether this type of article will skew a full understanding of the Afghan War as the 25th anniversary of 9/11 nears.