Host Brian Kerg talks with General Robert Neller, USMC (Ret.) to discuss the role of information in warfighting and the Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group (MIG). General Robert Neller served as the 37th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps from 2015 to 2019. He was commissioned in 1975 and served as an infantry officer. As a general officer he also served as the commanding general of the 3d Marine Division, the Director of Operations on the Joint Staff, the commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, and commander of Marine Corps Forces Command/Fleet Marine Forces, Atlantic. Jim Jarvie edited and produced this episode.

Walker interviews US Coast Guard Commander Steven Hulse about his USNI Proceedings article “Bases on the Aleutians Islands Would Project Power Across the Pacific.” Hulse discusses his own experience operating in the Aleutians as a cutterman, and why they are still strategically relevant.

Host Brian Kerg talks with Steve Brock and Hunter Stires to discuss their CIMSEC article, “Maritime Statecraft and Its Future.” Steven V. Brock was appointed by the White House as the Senior Advisor to the 78th Secretary of the Navy, where from 2022 to 2025 he served as a chief strategist and key implementor of the Secretary’s highest priorities, including as a principal architect of Maritime Statecraft. A former member of the Senior Executive Service and retired U.S. Navy Captain, he currently is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Del Toro Global Associates. Hunter Stires served as the Maritime Strategist to the 78 th Secretary of the Navy, where he was recognized for his work as one of the principal architects of the Maritime Statecraft strategy. He serves as the Project Director of the U.S. Naval Institute’s Maritime Counterinsurgency Project, a Non-Resident Fellow with the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy, and the Founder and CEO of The Maritime Strategy Group. Andrew Frame edited and produced this episode.

Host Walker D. Mills interviews Marine Corps Captain Colton Byers about his article for the War Quants substack, “Carrier 2.0: The Drone Carrier Revolution.” Their discussion covers salvo equations and modeling, the utility of drone carriers, and how they might integrate with a modern naval fleet.

Lt. Col. Craig Whiteside, (Ret.) PhD., joins the program to discuss the new book he co-authored with Ian Rice, Non-state Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects. Dr. Whiteside shares how to define and apply terms like “non-state” and “special operations, historical examples of this type of operation, their use by contemporary actors, and how the maritime domain plays a critical role in their success or failure. Dr. Craig Whiteside is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College resident program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He is a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism and the International Centre for Counterterrorism-The Hague. Whiteside’s current work focuses on the leadership succession and military doctrine of the Islamic State militant group, and he co-authored The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement. His latest book is Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects. He is the 2022 winner of the U.S. Naval War College Excellence in Research Award. 

Pieter Zhao joins the program to discuss his article, “Outsourcing Security at Sea—The Return of Private Maritime-Security Companies and Their Role in Twenty-First-Century Maritime Security.” He discusses the growing role of private maritime-security companies in the modern world and situations where they could provide maritime security. Pieter W.G. Zhao is a PhD Researcher and Junior Lecturer at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focusing on history and international relations in the maritime domain. He is also a Nonresident Fellow at the Irregular Warfare Initiative. His doctoral research analyzes the changing dynamics in the 21st-century maritime warfare and security environment from an applied historical perspective, focusing on non-state actors and irregular warfare at sea. J. Overton is co-host of the Sea Control podcast and edited the essay collection “Seapower by Other Means: Naval Contributions to National Objectives Beyond Sea Control, Power Projection, and Traditional Service Missions.”

Elaine Helm joins the program to reflect on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and her time as a journalist embedded with the U.S. military during their response and recovery operations in New Orleans and Houston. Elaine Helm is a communications professional and former journalist who lives and works in the Seattle area. She was the military reporter for the Kitsap Sun and the founder and editor of the pioneering Northwest Navy News site. 

Commander William Spears, U.S. Navy, joins the program to discuss his article, “What Moral Leadership Looks Like,” which examines the philosophical approach of Admiral Stockdale during his time as a POW in North Vietnam. Commander William C. Spears is a submarine warfare officer in the U.S. Navy and the author of Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy: Insights on the Morality of Military Service, forthcoming in November by Casemate Publishers. Addison Pellerano edited and produced this episode.

Retired USN Commander Chuck Ridgway joins the podcast to discuss his article “What Imperial Germany Teaches About China’s Naval Basing Ambitions,” which appeared in the May issue of Proceedings. Commander Ridgway is a retired U.S. Navy surface warfare and a reserve Africa foreign area officer. After leaving active duty, he worked for 10 years as a NATO international civilian at the NATO Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre in Portugal while also serving as a Navy reserve officer with Naval Forces Africa. Brendan Costello edited and produced this episode.

By Brian Kerg Major Chris Denzel of the United States Marine Corps and Mr. Sebastian Bae of the Center for Naval Analyses to discuss their experience supporting wargaming in the Pacific, specifically in support of bilateral wargames involving the U.S. and Japan. Chris Denzel is an intelligence officer and operational planner. He is currently serving as the J-52 Posture Plans Officer, U.S. Forces Japan. He previously served as the G-5 bilateral U.S.-Japan plans officer, III Marine Expeditionary Force, in Okinawa, Japan, where he ran an annual bilateral U.S.-Japan ground-force wargame. Sebastian Bae is a Senior Game Designer and Research Scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). He focuses on wargaming, emerging technologies, and future warfare. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, teaching a graduate course on game design. Additionally, he co-chairs the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Wargaming Community of Practice. Bae served six years in the Marine Corps as an infantryman and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Professor Ronald Po joins Jonathan to discuss his new book, Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which covers the maritime policies of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Daniel Banks joins the show to talk about this writing and research into the logistics networks, particularly the maritime and naval networks, that helped Guiseppe Garibaldi succeed in this reunification of Italy in 1860. Daniel Banks is a postdoctoral fellow in Global History and Governance at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale in Naples, Italy. He is currently working on completing a book manuscript that shows how groups of political agitators used the Mediterranean Sea's business and transport networks to foment revolutions that transformed states and empires like Italy, Spain, France and French Algeria from the 1850s to the 1870s. He can be followed on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/danielobanche.bsky.social

Captains Brendan Costello and Tyler Muniz of the United States Marine Corps join Brian to discuss their article "The Marine Littoral Regiment’s Missing Link" published in the Marine Corps Gazette.

Major Aaron Barlow, Captain Patrick Reilly, and Major Sean Harper join Brian on the podcast to discuss their article for CIMSEC “Building Resilient Kill Chains for the Stand in Force”.

Major Ben Van Horrick and LtCol Scott ‘Chuck’ Blyleven of the United States Marine Corps join Brian to discuss their recent article Partnering Will Determine the First Days of Conflict in the Western Pacific.

Naval War College Professor of Strategy Andrew Erickson joins the program to talk about his recent book, “Chinese Amphibious Warfare,” the most current and authoritative assessment of PLA amphibious capabilities.

Dr. Ben Zweibelson joins the program to talk about his new book, Reconceptualizing War. Dr. Zweibelson has over three decades of service to the U.S. Department of Defense, retiring as an Infantry Officer with 22 years combined service, multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and awarded four Bronze Stars. Author of two other books, Understanding the Military Design Movement (Routledge, 2023) and Beyond the Pale (Air University Press, 2023), Ben lectures at numerous war colleges and universities around the world. He holds a doctorate in philosophy, has three master’s degrees, and graduated U.S. Army Ranger School among numerous other demanding military courses. Ben resides in Colorado Springs with his wife and three boys.

Dr. Tommy Jamison joins the program to discuss his recent article “Rescuing Heritage from Humiliation: The Navalist Reinterpretation of the Sino-French and Sino-Japanese Wars,” published in the October issue of the Journal of Military History. The conversation focuses on recent reinterpretations of the Sino-French and Sino-Japanese Wars, and what they can tell us about how the Chinese military and thinks about its own history, and why the interpretation of military history is important generally. Dr. Tommy Jamison is a military historian and Assistant Professor of Strategic Studies in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and previously served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy.

Dr. Sebastian Bruns joins the program to talk about his article, "Conundrums, Right Ahead: Five strategic concerns for Baltic Sea decision-makers." Sebastian is a naval strategist and sea power expert based in Kiel, Germany, where he is senior researcher at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University.

Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Hough joins the podcast to discuss his article, "Diplomacy for Better Stand-In Force Access in Japan." Lieutenant Colonel Hough is a combat engineer officer serving as an operational planner in the III MEF G-357 Future Operations Branch in Okinawa, Japan. He deployed as a combat engineer officer in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and as an engineer advisor in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. This episode was edited and produced by William McQuiston.