Midrats

Latest Episodes:

Episode 669: Fall Maritime Free For All Oct 02, 2023

Show notes

Fall is in the air ... so Sal and EagleOne return to the podcast to get you caught up now that FY24 is behind us.
We'll cover the waterfront.
Links mentioned during the show:

SECNAV Del Toro Calls for a New, Bold Maritime Statecraft.
What’s Keeping the USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka?
Taiwan launches its first homemade submarine.
What is a DASH?
What is this quad-copter son of DASH?
Ukraine's repurposed agricultural drones made in to bombers.
USN’s unmanned ships get a workout near Japan.
USMC’s autogyro in 1930s Nicaragua.
Role of the U.S. Merchant Marine in National Security; Project Walrus Report.
Sine Qua Non of U. S. Sea Power: the Merchant Ship, By Rear Admiral John D. Hayes, U. S. Navy (Retired), Proceedings, March 1965.
America Needs a Cabinet-Level Maritime Department, by Jimmy Drennan

Episode 668: The Indo-Pacific Quad in 2023 with Blake Herzinger Sep 17, 2023

Show notes

Since its first formation in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or "Quad" of the Australia, India, Japan and the United States of America has continued to evolve in to something that isn't a fully formed alliance, but is a bit more than just a talking shop as well.
Encouraged by the changing nature of the People's Republic of China, it is evolving in to something with great potential for enhancing security and international norms at sea to the benefit of not just the Quad, but the other nations in the area.
For the full hour today to discuss the Quad will be returning guest Blake Herzinger.
The foundation for our discussion will be via the Unites States Study Centre, Bolstering the Quad: The case for a collective approach to maritime security.
Blake is a Research Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre. His work is broadly focused on Indo-Pacific defence policy and US security cooperation, with emphasis on maritime security and sea power.
Previously a Non-resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Blake also directed global security policy for Twitter, and was a Non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow and Young Leader at Pacific Forum. Prior to that, Blake was a civilian adviser to the US Pacific Fleet, focusing on maritime security cooperation in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the South Pacific. During that time, he and his team developed the Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative program, delivering assistance ranging from coursework to coast guard cutters to regional maritime law enforcement organisations. He is a serving US Navy Reserve foreign area officer and spent ten years in active service.
His work can be found in Foreign Policy, War on the Rocks, The Diplomat, The Straits Times and Nikkei Asia, among other publications. His book, Carrier Killer, focuses on China’s anti-ship ballistic missile program and its influence on the regional military balance. Blake holds an MSc in Strategic Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University, and completed his BA in Political Science at Brigham Young University.

Episode 667: Fading FY23 Free For All! Sep 10, 2023

Show notes

While almost all the intellectual energy in the American military establishment is focused on the end of the FY potlatch of spending before fiscal year 2024 kicks off in under three weeks, it's time for EagleOne and Sal to take a deep breath and take a look around the national security waterfront.
For the first third of the show we discuss DEPSECDEF Hick's "Replicator" project and some of the issues around it, and then regular guest Mark Vandroff calls in the show and we take the conversation on from there, eventually winding up what is more valuable than all the technology you can buy - the supply chains that enable it and the people who put it together.
Showlinks:

Episode 666: The New Age of Naval Power in the Indo-Pacific: Strategy, Order, and Regional Security - with Alession Patalano Aug 27, 2023

Show notes

Today we’re going to discuss a helpful solution to the simple reality in our busy world that it is difficult to build a culture of understanding of any challenge unless those involved in addressing that challenge have a similar foundational knowledge of it.
As in most complicated issues, addressing the rise of the People’s Republic of China suffers perhaps more than most from this lack of a foundation to build off of.
Our guest today is Dr. Alessio Patalano who along with his fellow contributing editors Catherine L. Grant and James A. Russell published this summer through Georgetown University Press, The New Age of Naval Power in the Indo-Pacific: Strategy, Order, and Regional Security, that brings together a variety of authors’ works to outline an framework in which five "factors of influence" explain how and why naval power matters in this pivotal part of the world.
Alessio Patalano is Professor of War & Strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies (DWS), and Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy (CGS) at King’s College London (KCL). He specialises in maritime strategy and doctrine, Japanese military history and strategy, East Asian security, and British defence and foreign policy towards the Indo-Pacific. His book on Japan titled Post-war Japan as a Seapower has redefined the study of the country’s post-war history, whilst his work on Chinese maritime coercion remains as a reference in the field.
At CGS, Prof Patalano leads the King’s Japan Programme and the newly established Indo-Pacific Programme. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), a Visiting Professor at the Japan Maritime Command and Staff College (JMCSC), and an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University Japan.
Prof Patalano maintains an active policy role collaborating regularly with think tanks and government institutions. He is a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and is Sir Herbert Richmond Fellow on naval strategy at the Council on Geostrategy. He is also visiting fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre (RNCSS) and non-resident fellow at the Royal Australian Navy Seapower Centre. In 2022, Prof Patalano became the first specialist advisor on the Indo-Pacific to the Foreign Affairs Committee in the UK Parliament. In 2023, he became also the first academic to be awarded a Commendation of the Ambassador of Japan to the UK for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of UK-Japan ties in defence and security. Prof Patalano is an active media commentator and writer (Nikkei, The Spectator); he collaborates on international documentaries, and is also regularly involved in military education, developing and delivering programmes on East Asian affairs.

Episode 665: The Road to the Fall of Kabul, with Jerry Dunleavy Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

We are two years since the greatest national humiliation since the Fall of Saigon almost half a century ago.
The negotiated surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban, retreat to Kabul, and withdraw from Kabul under the grace of our enemy in the summer of 2021 remains a mostly untold story. Partially is it from the attention given to the Russo-Ukrainian War that started six months later, but it seems more a byproduct of disinterest by most of our press who seem to want to discuss almost anything else.
Not any more. In to that gap is a superb book by our guest today from 5-6pm Eastern will be Jerry Dunleavy, co-authored with James Hasson; Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End
If you want to know the road to the last plane out of Kabul, this is your book.
Jerry is an investigative reporter who has focused on the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community, and the national security arena at the Washington Examiner for half a decade. He has published numerous groundbreaking stories of national importance, ranging from China’s coverup of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan to the FBI’s atrocious mishandling of the Trump-Russia investigation. He frequently appears for in-depth discussions on Fox News and C-SPAN.You can listen live here or get the podcast later here.

Episode 664: China's Summer from the Aleutians to Guadalcanal with Dean Cheng Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

What better way to recover from mid-August heat than to kick back and listen to Midrats as we check in on what the People's Republic of China is up to.
This Sunday live is returning guest Dean Cheng.Dean is a Senior Adviser at the US Institute of Peace, a (non-resident) Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and a Non-resident Fellow with the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

Episode 663: The US Naval Reserve in Ukraine & More with Chris Rawley Aug 06, 2023

Show notes

In mid-July, a rather normal letter from the White House delivered at an awkward time about the authorization to activate 3,000 reservists to support operations in Europe enabling aid to Ukraine got everyone's attention. The reaction has a lot of reservists from all services and National Guardsmen cracking a little smile because even with the wars of most of this century are past, here has been no rest for reservists and the "Total Force."
To discuss what the US military's reservists have been doing in Ukraine for almost a decade and how they are being used now in Europe and elsewhere will be returning guest to Midrats for the full hour is,\ Chris Rawley, Captain, USNR (Ret.).
Chris recently retired from a 30-year Naval Reserve career as a Surface Warfare Officer where he deployed to the Persian Gulf, Western Pacific, Iraq, Afghanistan, and across Africa. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform for bringing farmers and ranchers together with investors.

Episode 662: Grain, Oil, and the Unfreeing of the Seas Jul 23, 2023

Show notes

This week we were reminded, again, that the world relies on the free flow of goods at market prices across its oceans to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
Most of the world consumes more food and fuel than it can produce locally. Most of the world's people live from paycheck to paycheck, and entire societies' stability rely on the grain and oil that economically can only be moved internationally at sea.In a story as old has time, there are power who are using that need as leverage by threatening - or proposing to threaten - access to the seas they have access to.
In this case it is the Russians threatening grain shipments through the Black Sea, and the Iranians the shipments of oil and gas.Joining us for the full hour to discuss this threat and how to address it will be returning guest Captain John Konrad.
John is the founder and CEO of gCaptain and author of the book Fire On The Horizon. He is licensed to captain the world's largest commercial ships and has sailed from ports around the world. John has built some of the world's most advanced ships and managed billion-dollar offshore construction projects in some of the world's harshest marine environments. John is a distinguished alumnus of New York Maritime College.

Episode 661: Summer Doldrums Melee Jul 17, 2023

Show notes

EagleOne and Sal pick up last weeks conversation to catch up on the conversation of the latest national security and maritime topics at hand.
As always on the melee format, join us live with the open chatroom and studio line if you have some issues you'd like to discuss. We're taking requests!
Links to items discussed:

Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, SeaLight.
Mackenzie Eaglen’s, Buying Power Is the Invisible Shortfall of the 2024 Defense Budget Request. Also here.
Japan-India BILAT naval exercises.
UN ship arrives in Yemen to prevent catastrophic oil spill from decaying tanker.
Luconia Shoals.
CSIS Island Tracker.
AUKUS submarine officer training.

Episode 660: Mid-Summer Free For All! Jul 09, 2023

Show notes

It's too darn hot to do anything outside, so stay inside and put your mind to work!
EagleOne and Sal start the show with the discussion of books they plan to use to help overcome the mid-summer heat and then cover some of the latest and greatest on the national security front, at least as we define it!
Books Discussed:
EagleOne’s List: