Midrats

While off the front page, ISIS is not gone, the Taliban remain a strong force, and throughout the globe, the Long War continues. A war unique in living memory in the West, it isn't going anywhere. Returning to the show for a broad ranging discussion of the war - however you want to call it - that we have been waging before we even knew it for sure in September 2001, will be Craig Whiteside. Craig...

Since WWII, how has the Navy's understanding of responsibility, accountability, and culpability changed?  Returning to Midrats for the full hour will be Michael Junge, author of the book, Crimes of Command, which looks at this question through 14 officers who were removed from command. Michael Junge is a Captain in the United States Navy and career Surface Warfare Officer who served afloat in dest...

The outlaw and lawless ocean, non-state actors, intimidation, and hostile acts short of war - security on the high seas involves a lot more than fleet actions. From the South China Sea as government policy, to land conflicts and economic stress moving to adjacent seas - what exactly is the concept of insurgency and counterinsurgency at sea? Returning to Midrats to discuss this and more will be Hun...

From is largest exercise since the end of the Cold War, to Syria, to a revival of covert direct action and  intermediated nuclear weapons as an issue - Russia continues to claw back her place on the international stage. As we approach the last quarter of the 2018 calendar year, what message is Russia trying to give the rest of the world and what should we expect through the end of the decade? Our...

What is the status of European naval power? With growing challenges from the Arctic Sea to the Mediterranean and a growing call for presence operations from the Gulf of Guinea to the South China Sea, how are the European nations building and maintaining fleets to remain effective and relevant regionally and on the high seas? Our guest to discuss this and more for the full hour will be Jeremy Stöhs...

Loyalty goes both ways, the old saying goes. One shows loyalty up the chain, because one expects the same in the other direction.  They system, however, is built upon the timbers of the imperfect human condition.  What happens when you have conflicting narratives, but the system that you thought was there to serve you as you served it decides to take the counter-narrative without question?  Is the...

Our best of this week asks the question: who was "The Gun Doctor," the officer who over a century ago led the revolution in naval gunnery, the development of torpedo boat and destroyer operations, and during WWI served as the senior US naval commander in Europe?  More than the man instrumental in the establishment of the convoy system that helped keep the United Kingdom from starvation in the conf...

March of 2015 had some great shows, and with our Navy about to put out another document about the direction it wants to go - now more than ever - let's listen to a great navalist, retired USN Captain Barney Rubel. The role of the Navy and Marine Corps should be to provide ready and capable forces to the joint commanders. Outside of that, what is the proper role of the sea services in designing a m...

This week a best of show with Chris Rawley where will return to the “unsexy but important” topic, specifically that of “alternative naval platforms and missions.” In part, the concepts that underlay Jerry Hendrix’s “Influence Squadrons” are in practice on a smaller scale today. In most cases they are being conducted using Military Sealift Command assets and the Navy Reserve. Chris Rawley is a Capt...

The last quarter of the 19th Century, the Gilded Age, was a period of breathtaking change in society, technology, politics and industry. This rapid change helped drive the intellectual and institutional change that brought the US Navy to the world’s attention in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The first two decades of the 20th Century are generally called the Progressive Era, but that only took...

Eight months in to his tenure as the 33rd Under Secretary of the Navy, our guest this week will be Thomas B. Modly. We'll cover the bold-faced items including his background prior to his appointment as the Undersecretary of Defense, his first priorities and challenges as the Under, reorganization of the Department of Defense, the upcoming review of education of our leaders, and more.

A military is not an amorphous mass, but a collection of individuals each who can make decisions in their professional role that can have great impact, both positive and negative, well beyond their immediate and personal concerns. Decisions, policies, and behavior derive from the training, traditions, and fundamental culture of the people who make them. What is the role of ethics, training and oth...

The future has been with us for quite awhile now, but the intersection of advance manufacturing, Moore's Law, and data storage are bringing to the front capabilities that for decades were found only in science fiction. Autonomous and varying degrees of human-robot teaming, artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning are not just growing parts of the modern economy, with each passing ye...

Especially in the last two years, those reporting on defense issues in the United States have seen a significant change in access to people and information compared to the relatively open environment of a decade and a half ago. How have things changed and how does this not only impact how military journalists do their job, but more importantly, how does it impact the ability for the American citiz...

NATO, Russia, the Chinese Navy, Australia's pocket fleet of the future and a potpourri of other issues that come across the transom - it's  Midrats Melee! Open topic, open phones and we'll be trolling the chat room for ideas. Come join us live.

Building off our discussions from last week's Midrats, our guest this Sunday will be Lieutenant Joshua M. Roaf, USN to discuss part of the solution to improving the professional performance of our Surface Warfare Officers in what should be the core of their skillset; seamanship. Using many of the issues he raised in a recent article co-authored with LT Adam Biggs, USN, Bring Back the Patrol Craft,...

The conditions that brought us to the series of events in WESTPAC in 2017 did not happen over night. They did not happen in one PCS cycle, or under one command climate. Layer by layer from many sources, it took time to get to where we found it. Our guest for the full hour to discuss his views of the latent causes of what is now generally accepted as a systemic failure of a "new normal" will be J.C...

In the last few months a lot has been written about learning how to fight a conventional land battle again after years of a focus on counterinsurgency. Fighting against an enemy who is holding territory, has a capital, armor, artillery and a proven record in the battlefield. While some are writing it, others have been living it, fighting side by side with traditional allies and new ones in a compl...

We're back live to catch up on all your maritime and natsec issues bubbling to the surface this summer. From the migrant crisis in the Med, Russians in the high north, to the infrastructure crunch in the Pacific - we'll cover it all. This is also your time to have us address the topics you find of interest. We're taking calls and questions in the chat room. It's a live show ... so now's your chanc...

For our Father's Day Best of we will replay an interview with Stephen Roderick, author of, The Magical Stranger: A Son's Journey into His Father's Life. Rodrick is a contributing writer for The NYT Magazine and a contributing editor for Men's Journal. He has also written for New York, Rolling Stone, GQ, The New Republic, Men's Journal, and others. Before becoming a journalist, Rodrick worked as a...

There is a long and successful record of fiction, especially science fiction, being instructive about history, human nature, and the eternal course of events. Fiction, of course, gets its inspiration from reality - a two way road. What do the Star Wars movies have to tell us about some of the comfortable myths we may see in American military and strategic thought? Using his latest article at the M...

As we approach the 100th Anniversary of the end of the First World War, it is good to reflect back on the impact of WWI on the growth of our modern navy, and the echoes it has to the present day. For the full hour our guest to discuss this and related issues will be Dr. Norman Friedman. As a starting point of our discussion will be some of the perspective brought out in his 2014 book from Naval In...

The majority of our officers come from two sources, NROTC and the United States Naval Academy. The Navy has a policy a bias towards STEM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to the point where 65 percent of USNA Midshipmen major in STEM. Is this in the best interest of educating future officers of our modern Navy and Marine Corps so they can effectively lead Sailors and Marines at wa...

How is our Navy making progress in adjusting how we man, train, and operate our forces following the series of lessons identified in the wake of 2017's series of mishaps that left ships damaged, reputations destroyed, and 17 Sailors dead? For the full hour to discuss where we are and the way forward will be returning guest Dr. James Holmes. We will use his recent comments from Asia Times and The N...

As the Islamic State Caliphate's territory in Syria is shrinking to just a few isolated pockets, rebel force opposing Assad lose more an more ground, and Kurdish led forces solidify lines, another chapter in the Syrian civil war is about to begin.  Time will tell, but the Turkish move in to Afrin may have been the opening. What is Turkey trying to accomplish, and how does this complicate the inter...