{"podcast":{"title":"The Cove Podcast","slug":"the-cove-podcast-7033630","podcast_index_feed_id":7033630,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/thecovepodcast","website_url":"https://cove.army.gov.au/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/d3a373cc-0ee1-11ed-8ebd-17f28ad4716b/image/eb59396993feea8949a0726597731249.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Australian Army","episode_count":187,"summary":"The Cove Podcast brings you candid, unfiltered conversations with the leaders, soldiers, and scholars shaping the Australian Army today. Each week, our host CAPT Todd Lempa sits down with uniformed officers and soldiers leading the change in the Australian Army as well as academics and international partners to unpack what modern warfare demands. From redefining leadership and resilience in the modern Army to exploring lessons from combat operations, command culture, human performance, and the future of land power, The Cove Podcast reveals how the Australian Army thinks, learns, and fights. Whether it’s a Regimental Sergeant Major reflecting on combat, a general discussing Warrior Culture, or a psychologist unpacking mental readiness—each episode delivers a grounded look at the people and ideas driving the Australian Army forward. Insightful, grounded, and authentic — this is where the Australian Army thinks out loud.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cove-podcast-7033630"},"episode":{"title":"The Unseen Ties: Exploring Civil-Military Relations – Prof. Risa Brooks PhD","slug":"the-unseen-ties-exploring-civil-military-relations-prof-risa-brooks-phd","published_at":"2025-09-28T19:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cove-podcast-7033630/the-unseen-ties-exploring-civil-military-relations-prof-risa-brooks-phd","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cove-podcast-7033630","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/HVTCV1563925070.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/HVTCV1563925070.mp3","summary":"‘The problem is if society becomes accustomed to or reliant on using the army to solve problems or to address failures of civilian capacity.’ In this week’s episode, we sit down with Dr Risa Brooks PhD, a Professor of Political Science at Marquette University and a leading scholar on civil-military relations, to unpack the enduring tension between military effectiveness and democratic control. Drawing on Peter Feaver’s concept of the “problematique,” Dr Brooks examines how this dilemma plays out in democracies like Australia and the United States today. We explore the public face of the military — why trust, transparency, and perception matter, and why uniformed leaders must tread carefully when engaging publicly. Dr Brooks discusses the risks of politicisation, the responsibilities of senior leaders, and the limits of professional dissent in systems that prize both loyalty and independence. The conversation also turns to the paradox of trust: how high public confidence in the military can lead to its overuse in civilian roles, and what that means for long-term legitimacy. We ask whether silence is always the right response to criticism, whether the expectation of apolitical conduct can itself be a trap, and how accountability should be exercised by senior leaders in difficult times. Finally, Dr Brooks highlights what healthy civil-military relations look like in practice, points to international models worth learning from, and offers practical advice for Australia’s emerging leaders on how to strengthen civil-military trust for the future. ————————————————————————— Subscribe to The Cove Podcast to make sure that you do not miss out on any of the heavy hitting content we have planned.","meta_description":"‘The problem is if society becomes accustomed to or reliant on using the army to solve problems or to address failures of civilian capacity.’ In this week…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2111,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-cove-podcast-7033630/episodes/the-unseen-ties-exploring-civil-military-relations-prof-risa-brooks-phd/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-cove-podcast-7033630/the-unseen-ties-exploring-civil-military-relations-prof-risa-brooks-phd.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}