Sea Control 608: David Smith on Alfred Thayer Mahan

Len Heinz joins the show to discuss his article "Battling Basques: As Spain descended into civil war in July 1936, the Basques had to choose a side—and build a navy" from the August 2026 issue of the Naval Institute’s Naval History magazine

Tom Marrotta, CEO of The Spaceport Company, joins the program to talk about the use of mobile offshore platforms for launching rockets, and the future of space access.

Dr. Siekiera is an international lawyer, a NATO consultant, and an Adjunct Professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, HI. She is also a non-resident fellow at Marine Corps University and a certified sailor. She previously joined us for Sea Control 537 to discuss Europe’s role in the Indo-Pacific.

Jonathan interviews scholar Andrew Blackley about his new book Wielding the Trident: Admiral Raymond A. Spruance and America’s Victory in the Pacific. The two discuss Spruance’s career and his contribution to Allied victory in the Pacific War.

Host Brian Kerg talks with Jason Wang and Marvin Bernardo to discuss their report, “Everything Everywhere All At Once: The Growing Complexity of PLA Amphibious Exercises,” published by the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). Jason Wang is a national security researcher and COO of ingeniSPACE, a Silicon Valley geointelligence analytics house. Marvin Bernardo is a PhD candidate at the National Jung ju University, Taiwan, and serves as a maritime domain analyst at ingeniSPACE. The report was also co-authored by Andrew Erickson and Pei-Jhen Wu.