Sea Control

Links: Steve’s website “The Last Navigator: A Young Man, and Ancient Mariner, the Secrets of the Sea” The Last Navigator documentary Steve’s lecture at the US Naval Academy

Bio: Dr. Elsa Kania received her PhD in Government from Harvard University. She served as a visiting scholar for the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, as an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and is an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve. LinkedIn

Dr. Emma Salisbury is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s National Security Program, an Associate Fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre, and a Contributing Editor at War on the Rocks. She writes widely on military-industrial matters, geopolitics, and national security in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe, with a particular focus on the maritime. She is based just outside London in the United Kingdom. Links 1. Proposed US Battleship: https://www.fpri.org/article/2026/01/the-trump-class-battleship-spectacle-wins-out-over-combat-power/ 2. Constellation-Class Frigate: https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/12/want-of-frigates-why-is-it-so-hard-for-america-to-buy-small-surface-combatants/ 3. Atlantic Bastion: https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/08/atlantic-bastion-the-future-of-anti-submarine-warfare/ 4. Dr. Salisbury at FPRI: https://www.fpri.org/contributor/emma-salisbury/

Links 1. "For 250 years, it’s been ‘change or lose’ for our military. Here’s what needs changing now," by Robert Neller and Peter Singer, Defense One, June 22, 2025. 2. "Change or Lose: Past and Future War Lessons on 250th Birthday of the US Army and US Marine Corps," by Robert Neller and Peter Singer, Youtube, November 10, 2025. 3. "Thinking First, Adapting Fast: Debating the Marine Corps’ Need for the Information Group," by Brian Kerg, War on the Rocks, November 7, 2025. 4. "Kill It or Fix It: Why Marine Corps Information Warfare Has Failed After a Decade of MIGs," by Dan Burns, Information Professionals Association, August 20, 2025. 5. "Killing the MIG is the Last Thing We Should Do," by Colonel Ray Gerber, USMC (Ret.), Information Professionals Association, September 7, 2025. 6. "Blinding First, Striking Fast: Why the Marine Corps Needs Information Groups," by Ben Jensen and Ian Fletcher, War on the Rocks, October 13, 2025.

“Bases on the Aleutians Islands Would Project Power Across the Pacific,” by Steven Hulse, USNI (January 2025).

Links 1. "Maritime Statecraft and its Future," by Steve Brock and Hunter Stires, CIMSEC, October 21, 2025. 2. "SECNAV Del Toro Calls for a New, Bold Maritime Statecraft in Era of Intense Strategic Competition," Department of the Navy, September 23, 2023.

“Carrier 2.0: The Drone Carrier Revolution,” by Colton Byers, War Quants (December 28, 2024). “Damn the Torpedoes: The Return of Naval Mining,” by Colton Byers, War Quants (January 31, 2025).

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 (Hurst Publishers/Oxford University Press, 2020). His current book is Non-State Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects (Routledge, July 2025). He is the 2022 winner of the US Naval War College Excellence in Research Award. His publications can be found here. Links: Non-state Special Operations: Capabilities and Effects https://www.routledge.com/Non-state-Special-Operations-Capabilities-and-Effects/Rice-Whiteside/p/book/9781032594514?srsltid=AfmBOoqur7WH1KdVFwx-v-itaXGYJ4GaMwNHJH5i67tZDV34tj1q2DG6 The Isis Reader https://theisisreader.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web @CraigAWhiteside on X or @craigwhiteside@bsky.social on BlueSky

Links: Outsourcing Security at Sea—The Return of Private Maritime-Security Companies and Their Role in Twenty-First-Century Maritime Security, Naval War College Review Irregular Warfare Initiative 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’s 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. He obtained his BA and MA in History from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, followed by a second Master’s degree in International Security studies from Sciences Po, Paris, and the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. LinkedIn BlueSky Contact Page 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.”

Guest bio: Elaine Helm is 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. Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainehelm/

Links 1. "What Moral Leadership Looks Like," by William Spears, CIMSEC, July 16, 2025. 2. Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy: Insights on the Morality of Military Service, by William Spears, Casemate, 2025. 3. William Spears website.

Links 1. "What Imperial Germany Teaches About China’s Naval Basing Ambitions," by Chuck Ridgeway, Proceedings, May 2025.

Links 1. Sebastian Bae Twitter.

Dr Ronald C. Po Shaping the Blue Dragon [Amazon] Further Reading: Dr Xing Hang on the Zheng regime in Taiwan Dr Ling-wei Kung on the Manchu's maritime awareness prior to establishing their capital in Beijing

Ships, Guns and Money: The Logistics of Revolution and Garibaldi’s Campaign of 1860 Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero (Yale University Press, 2007), by Lucy Riall. Enrico Acciai with a more long-term history of Garibaldi's legacy in the terms of war volunteering Maurizio Isabella providing a good summary of histories of Italy in the nineteenth-century David Sims with using a "follow the money" approach to Irish nationalism in the same time period And finally some background on the nineteenth-century Mediterranean

The Marine Littoral Regiment's Missing Link

Building Resilient Kill Chains for the Stand in Force

Partnering Will Determine the First Days of Conflict in the Western Pacific Resolute Dragon: Reassurance, Deterrence, and a Call for Coordination

"Chinese Amphibious Warfare" edited by Andrew Erickson, et al., Naval War College, China Maritime Studies Institute, 2024. “China Maritime Studies Institute” home page. https://www.andrewerickson.com/, the home page of Dr. Andrew Erickson, one of the editors and contributors to Chinese Amphibious Warfare. Invasion Plans: Operation Causeway and Taiwan’s Defense in World War II, by Ian Easton, China Maritime Studies Institute, Naval War College, 2024. China's New Navy: The Evolution of the PLAN from the People's Revolution to a 21st Century Cold War, by Xiaobing Li Mao's Army Goes to Sea, by Toshi Yoshihara Bio: Dr. Andrew S. Erickson is Professor of Strategy (tenured full professor) in the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). A core founding member, he helped establish CMSI and stand it up officially in 2006, and has played an integral role in its development; from 2021–23 he served as Research Director. Erickson is currently a Visiting Scholar in full-time residence at Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, where he has been an Associate in Research since 2008. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Institute of Maritime Policy & Strategy’s International Advisory Committee, and the Japan-America Society of Southern New England and Japan-America Navy Friendship Association (JANAFA)-Newport’s Board of Directors. Erickson serves on the editorial boards of Naval War College Review and Asia Policy and is a Contributing Editor at 19FortyFive. Twitter

Links 1. Reconceptualizing War, by Ben Zweibelson, Helion & Company, 2025. 2. Understanding the Military Design Movement, by Ben Zweibelson, Routledge, 2024. 3. Beyond the Pale: Designing Military Decision-Making Anew, by Ben Zweibelson, Air University Press, 2023. 4. War Becoming Phantasmal: A Cognitive Shift in Organized Violence beyond Traditional Limits, by Ben Zweibelson, Marine Corps University Press, May 2024. 5. "Breaking the Newtonian Fetish," by Ben Zweibelson, Journal of Advanced Military Studies, Vol. 15. No. 1.