Ep. 18: Bruce Jones on Seapower

Bruce Jones, director of the Project on International Order and Strategy of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, joins the show to discuss seapower.  Times 00:51 - Introduction  01:17 - The importance of seapower today 06:45 - Innovation of container shipping and how that changed the global economy  12:50 - China re-enters the seas  16:54 - China’s security challenges at sea 22:44 - Shallow seas, narrow passages, and massive ships  24:06 - China’s strategic interest in Taiwan   26:10 - China’s alienation of potential allies   29:08 - American strategic view of the Pacific Ocean 34:41 - Relations between the United States and India, specifically in terms of taking on China  39:12 - Seapower theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan 44:55 - Comparing America’s quest for power at sea during the 20th century and China’s return to the sea today  48:48 - The role of oceanography in nation-state power competition