"Mapping Military Power" with Michael Hilliard

About this episode

The episode discusses the measurement and comparison of military power in Central Asia with insights from Michael Hilliard and Mitchell Polman.

This week, we explored the practicalities of modern warfare. How do we measure military power? Is it possible to fairly compare fighting resources between regions? In this episode, Michael Hilliard from the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs walked us through their latest research, mapping the militaries of Central Asia. Michael was also joined shortly on stage during the talk by Mitchell Polman, an OSINT researcher who helped with the mapping project. The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on Thursday November 6th 2025. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist. Recorded live in the Bellingcat Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat Links discussed: PROJECT LINK >> https://oxussociety.org/projects/the-armed-forces-of-central-asia/ UZBEKISTAN CHAPTER DOWNLOAD LINK >> https://oxussociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/The-Armed-Forces-of-Central-Asia-Chapter-IV-Uzbekistan-1-1.pdf MAPPING PROJECT LINK >> https://oxussociety.org/viz/military-units/map.html Michael's red line podcast- excellent listening: https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/ And the Oxus Society podcast https://oxussociety.org/publications/podcast/ Purchase higher tier data link…

People in this episode

Host: Charlotte Maher

Guests: Michael Hilliard, Mitchell Polman

Topics covered

• military power
• modern warfare
• Central Asia
• OSINT research
• mapping militaries

Keywords

• military power
• Central Asia
• mapping
• OSINT
• modern warfare

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, Bellingcat

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