Ep. 23: James Holmes on Sea Power

School of War

James Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College, joins the show to discuss seapower, the war in Ukraine, and the possibility of war in the Pacific. 

James Holmes, the J.C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College, joins the show to discuss sea power, the war in Ukraine, and the possibility of war in the Pacific Times<ul>
<li>00:58 - Introduction </li>
<li>01:57 - Time spent considering Russia and the NATO alliance’s naval power</li>
<li>04:05 - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grand strategy</li>
<li>05:35 - What does Ukraine mean to Putin?</li>
<li>06:58 - The Crimean War </li>
<li>10:32 - Closing the Bosporus</li>
<li>16:15 - Does the war end well for Putin? </li>
<li>21:28 - Zelensky’s survival </li>
<li>23:12 - Worst-case scenario for Putin </li>
<li>25:43 - What the outcome in Ukraine will mean for Taiwan</li>
<li>28:35 - China’s challenge in Taiwan</li>
<li>31:02 - How security concerns in the early American Republic influence China’s thinking</li>
<li>35:25 - Should the United States shift national security focus to Asia? </li>
</ul>

Learn what war teaches

This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history.&nbsp; Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras.The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>