YouSaid · the spoken record

James Stavridis

lines on the record: 29
first: 2022-07-04
most recent: 2022-07-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It's my pleasure, and I'll just mention it one more time, a new book out, a maritime book that I think this audience would really like. Risk it all nine conflicts and the crucible of decision about making decisions under extreme pressure and real risk.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mentioned a couple of things. One is training. Another is information sharing with each other and with the government. And of course, they're in competition and that's hard. But look at the airlines on the issue of maintenance and safety. They constantly work together and share information. Thirdly, and we talked about it already, work with the various governments, build those relationships. Fourthly, international organizations being part of shipping professional associations, which many of these are a part of already, but also with the International American Organization, for example, in London, be part of that kind of effort. There's four or five ideas for you.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They have endless training they constantly conduct, they have exquisite intelligence, they can mitigate the combat risk quite effectively. The military logisticians do not have to face the big challenge that the global supply chains face, which is that it's kind of all open source. In many ways, it's market driven. It's not like these global shipping firms are getting And as a result of that, the kind of supply chain issues hurt badly because they hit a system that had already moved so far to the just-in-time principle that it was very vulnerable to these kind of distortions. And again, first, it's COVID, then it's the war, and then now it's this rampant inflation. All that is severely distending these global systems. It's going to require pretty significant rewiring, I think.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can, Tracy, an old saying in the military is that amateurs focus on the strategy, the professionals are looking at the logistics. The business equivalent of that expression is execution eats strategy from lunch. Meaning logistics, right? And again, Odlot's audience, that's what we all do for a living, moving through these global supply chains. And what we've discovered in our logisticians are the very best in the world, full stop, military logisticians. But they've got a pretty controlled environment. And that sounds funny to say, right? Because they're dealing with war. But they're also dealing from stockpiles.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's a finite space that you have to do. Now, could Russia do some dirty tricks and throw some floating mines in there conceivable, particularly if they felt they could do it without us knowing it? But we're watching for that. They know we're watching for that. So let's take as an entering argument that you have to clear the channels. You have minesweepers, and there are several classes of these, but there are ships that are devoted to this task. And they're quite capable. They have very good sonar that can look into the water and find the mines. And then they have remotely operated apparatus that can go and neutralize it. I don't want to go into more detail than that, but our capability in this regard is quite good. We practice constantly to clear a channel from Odessa into clear waters of the Black Sea.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, so these are not floating mines. In other words, these are not mines that are just drifting all around. That's a much harder problem These are minds that are fixed to the bottom, and therefore you don't have to take them all out. You just got to take out enough so that you can drive a tanker up a channel. So you got to demine the channels.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got to be a graduate. You got to have reasonably high grades. You've got to be in essentially perfect health. You've got to have no drug use, no arrests.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We are seeing some pressure on our recruiting, yes. And so for the first time in a long while, for example, the Army has extended the tours of its recruiters. Those are the men and women who are out in the field trying to convince high school seniors to come join the military. And the reason they're doing that is because they're facing pressure meeting their targets for all the reasons we've talked about. And by the way, as an aside, it's important to know, and this may surprise many people who tend to think, oh, well, if I can't go to college or I don't want to go to college, I guess I'll just join the military. It's hard to be accepted as a volunteer in the U.S. military. Only about 25% of high school seniors are eligible for military service.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is now by the events in Ukraine on top of post COVID, let's hope post COVID, on top of staggeringly high inflation. It's a very difficult moment for global shipping and it will have impact on the grain in particular. And that, I think, needs to be a key focus.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not unlike the implementation of the TSA regime in all the airports, we need to go back and re-look at that security, I think, and make sure that it meets today's needs. And then third, we need to ensure that logistically we can go from these ports quickly and efficiently into the nations that are receiving. So in the military context, we would say this is from port to fort. Those railheads, those trucking systems, whatever the means of cargo delivery is a whole secondary back office, if you will, where we, at least here in the United States, have some well-documented challenges as well. Like everything else in today's world, it's a big complicated global supply chain. And when a portion of it is distended as it is,”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great question, Tracy. First, we need to ensure that we're efficiently moving containers and cargoes in and out of these ports. And let's face it, we have a bit of a double whammy here in the sense that we're still just coming off COVID in many places. We also are seeing very high inflation. It's impacting labor forces. We're facing a They want to organize, they want to get more understandably so they can keep up with inflation. So we have to have efficient, well-run ports that offer good compensation for the kind of quality work we need in those ports. Number two, we need to make sure that ports are safe and secure. We worked very hard during the period after 9-11 to create much more security around ports globally and a lot of that is still in place.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Shipping companies and they reciprocate. It's a very close and positive relationship. As we all know, the Coast Guard has a bit of a different role, more law enforcement. So, you know, they're going to have perhaps less of a warm and cozy relationship. I think navies and commercial shipping are quite close and frankly have been back to the time of the ancient Greeks.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The thousands and thousands and thousands of significant fishing craft that are out there. They are commercial and they are under assault frequently. A lot of the piracy is directed against them. And by the way, a lot of them are conducting illegal fishery activities. And some of that is state-sponsored by the way. So that's a long way of saying there are many problems out there, and that's before we get into illegal dumping and pollution. Again, that's commercial activity that's going on out there, albeit illegal. So all of the world's navies and coast guards are very focused on this and are working very closely both ashore with conferences and symposia on exchanging information and data sharing. We share immense amounts of data from U.S. maritime centers, for example, with commercial”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think the key phrase there, Joe, is take for granted And we, all of us, the global population, kind of just feels as though there's no problems out there. And yet, as again, as recently as within the decade, we saw organized strongly land-based pirate operations coming out of Somalia. We continue to see pretty vicious piracy in the Straits of Malacca. We see it off the coast of West Africa. see kind of hints of it in and around the Caribbean at times. So piracy continues. A second zone, and I always say the oceans in many ways are the world's largest crime scene. Another major challenge, and we tend to think of this as merchant ships, tankers, brake bulk, container ships. But how about”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Captured from the Mayors, Alabama, rescued by a very heroic Navy operation. Frankly, one of the case studies in my book to risk it all is about that operation. In that period of time, all of our Navies work very closely with the International Shipping Community, if you will. And I would go every few months to London to the International Maritime Organization, which functioned as a kind of umbrella over both the major shipping companies. So we had representatives there from all of them and the major navies that were part of the counterpiracy. So we've got very recent experience working alongside our merchant marine colleagues. And frankly, that relationship is generally pretty comfortable.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All of the NATO navies do this quite well, and most of the NATO nations have very capable Coast Guards, including obviously our own. And again, an odd lots audience will know well the close working relationship of the U.S. Coast Guard to merchant shipping. That's replicated by the French Coast Guard, the German Coast Guard, the Danish Coast Guard. And I think that you could certainly draw on that expertise. Finally, Tracy and Joe, I would say that we have experience doing this much more recently during the period of time when I was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO from 2009 to 2013, we were facing pirates off the coast of East Africa. This, of course, is the time of Captain Phillips, who is”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, in that particular situation, it was relatively easy to calculate by looking at Iranian military capability. How far could their attack aircraft fly? How far did they typically operate warships? Answer in both cases not very far. In the case of Russia, I think safely speaking, we would escort them down through the Bosphorus and out of the Black Sea and into the Aegean Sea. I think that's where you're going to cut them loose. Again, highly unlikely, in my view, that Russia is going to come after commercial shipping, frankly, whether it's Ukrainian flag or not, but let's say for sake of argument, we've re-flagged and they're flying a US flag or a Danish flag from a NATO member, very unlikely Russia's going to go anywhere. Outside their zone of control, which is really the northern Black Sea.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On watch with the firing key. So if we were overflown by Iranian combat aircraft, I had permission to shoot them down. If the Iranian small boats were to attack the tanker, I could engage them with our gun systems. Naturally, if a situation like that developed,”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My role was obviously that was many years ago. I was a very young lieutenant commander. I suppose I was in my late 20s, maybe 30, and I was the operations officer on an Aegis cruiser, USS Valley Forge. And as the ops boss, my job was to participate in all the planning that went into the operation alongside the Admiral's flag staff and my equivalents from all the other ships that were in the task force. So we would get together on the carrier and kind of sketch out the whole operation. We'd send it up, the chain of command. It would get approved and come back. So step one for me was planning process very deeply involved. And then in the execution phase, I was the tactical action officer on board the Valley Forge. Effectively the officer.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Operation Ernest Will in the 1980s in the Arabian Sea, it's just quicker. You can put a US flag on it because the US government says, yep, we'll take that ship. But is that crucial? No, I don't think so. And I don't think it would change the calculus particularly.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually don't think that is a crucial step. I think it ups the ante for Russia. But let's face it, as this audience will know, there are many, many flags of convenience all around the seas of the world. Many of these grain tankers are non-Ukrainian, but it does alleviate one aspect of this, which is that it would be Russia conceivably could say, well, we're engaged in a special military operation. We're attacking Ukrainian targets. So we would say, okay, we'll take down the Ukrainian flag and put up really wouldn't have to be a US flag. It could be Panamanian. It could be Greek. It could be any nation willing to participate. It could be any of the NATO nations. If NATO signed up to it, it would just be quite streamlined, and this was the case in the”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Passes the risk test, but I will also say at this point, do we really need to worry about provoking Russia in the sense that they're the ones who have invaded this country with 200,000 troops, committed hideous war crimes, are refusing negotiations and are blocking food from the rest of the world. I mean, at some point, you just have to look a bully in the eye and say, no, your behavior is unacceptable. Here's what we're going to do about it. I think we've hit that point in this particular course of action.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It does not as follows where we have drawn the red line as to U.S. involvement is on the soil of the Ukrainian land or Russian soil. But here we're talking about neither of those. We're talking about international waters. So these ships would not be passing through Russian claimed waters at all. These would be international high seas. So I think that's a crucial difference and one that we would certainly articulate and be very clear with the Russians. Look, we're not entering your territorial waters to conduct this mission. We're going into a Ukrainian port, but through international waters. And of course, through the Ukrainian territorial sea, with their permission. So I think this”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, the audience... Okay, indeed, for our hosts, no Tim is a notice to mariners. And it is, it can be published about a floating object that's become an obstruction, about newly discovered underwater formations, or about a missile shoot or a gun chute that enable warships going to conduct. It's really just the equivalent of posting public notice of operations. So we would demarsh the Russians. What that means is go diplomat to diplomat and we would issue no TAMs, notice mariners, which goes, if you will, mariner to mariner warships to worships. The calculus then shifts over to the Russians. And here you just have to put yourself in the shoes of the Russians and ask yourself, you know, in the words of Clint Eastwood, are you feeling lucky today? I don't think the Russians would take a shot at a merchant ship escorted by a U.S. warship, therefore highly”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it would be seen as a provocation, and we have to ask ourselves. Sufficient the need to do this? Is it sufficient to accept the level of risk? Back to the book I just published, to risk it all. That's exactly what I examined in the”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We got rid of the mines in the 1980s in the Arabian Gulf, and then we reflagged Kuwaiti tankers as U.S. vessels, and then we escorted them, put a cruiser, a destroyer, or a frigate alongside every one of them, provided air cover, and simply drove them in and out and told the Iranians in effect, don't even think about it. And that solution could be applied here in Ukraine. And if we don't move in that direction pretty quickly, I think the consequences of global food security are quite dire.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And at the moment, it's not only blockaded by Russian warships, but it's mined in both by the Ukrainians and reportedly by the Russians. So it's a very complex maritime problem. And to very quickly sketch it out, what we would do first is get rid of the mines. I think that's pretty obvious why you need to do that. And maybe some of the listeners can remember back to the 1980s when Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. What did the U.S. do? We got rid of the mines. We certainly have that technology, our allies. There's a standing NATO minesweeping task force that could be sent up in the Black Sea to do this.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In odd lots audience that 95% of all international trade moves by sea. And grain, of course, is a commodity that moves out in mass. And so the idea of trying to truck it out or even train it out of Ukraine just doesn't serve. So the problem is Russia has taken their Black Sea fleet about 40 warships and effectively they've blockaded the entire coastline of Ukraine. They already control on the land side about 70% of that coastline on the Black Sea. But that remaining 30% has Odessa in it. And Odessa is like Los Angeles, Long Beach in the context of the United States. It's the port. For the key is how can we, if you will, open that port?”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm really struck by a book I just published called To Risk It All Nine Conflicts in the Crucible of Decision. And it's about decision making under extreme stress. And so here I think we have a pretty good example of both Vladimir Putin on, if you will, the dark side of the equation and Vlodimir Zelensky on the lighter side on our side of the equation. Both of these men are literally risking it all. And one of the crucial components of it is this ability or not to export grain. I think you and Tracy Joe did a nice job laying out the challenges globally if it doesn't get out. So we come pretty quickly to, okay, Admiral, so how would you get the grain out? You know, I don't need to.”
2022-07-04 · Odd Lots · Admiral Stavridis on a Plan to Get Ukrainian Wheat Out of a Warzone · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source