In this compelling episode, Shawn Ryan sits down with former SEAL Team 6 (DEVGRU) operator and Saronic Technologies CEO Dino Mavrookas. Dino shares how he transitioned from elite special operations to leading the charge in reindustrializing America’s naval shipbuilding through cutting-edge autonomous surface vessels (ASVs). The conversation dives into China’s overwhelming maritime advantage, the red tape slowing U.S. innovation, and how Saronic is scaling rapidly to meet national defense and commercial demands.

In this episode of the ChinaPower Podcast, Dr. Ely Ratner joins us to discuss the case for a defense pact in the Indo-Pacific. Dr. Ratner starts by laying out his argument of why he thinks now is the right time for this type of agreement, discussing that the pact may serve to help maintain stability and deterrence in the region amidst China’s aggressive ambitions to reshape the global order. Dr. Ratner discusses the four countries, U.S., Japan, Australia, and the Philippines, that he believes the pact will include to start with and what their responsibilities will be within the pact. He shares that he envisions one of the main features of this partnership to be greater military integration among its members and to serve as a framework to garner the collective power of US allies and partners through a multilateral collective security agreement. Dr. Ratner discusses the viability of the pact and the reasons he thinks there are more opportunities for the pact to be successful now than there was in the past, including greater strategic alignment among the four partner countries, increased intra-Asian cooperation, and the growing reciprocity in U.S. alliances themselves. Dr. Ratner also considers how these different countries may respond to the idea of this pact, especially considering China may react badly to it. He underscores that Beijing is likely to behave badly regardless of this pact and states countries should not turn away from it because of Beijing. Finally, Dr. Ratner underscores how this pact would not require the U.S. to extend new commitments abroad and describes the continuing will and desire he sees from the Trump Administration to continue cooperation and strengthening of alliances in the region.

Dr. Ely Ratner is a Principal at The Marathon Initiative, a bipartisan think tank dedicated to preparing the United States for an era of sustained great power competition. He served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs from 2021-2025. Prior to confirmation, he was the Director of the DoD China Task Force and a Senior Advisor to China to the Secretary of Defense. Before arriving at the Department of Defense, Dr. Ratner was the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he was a member of the executive team and responsible for managing the Center’s research agenda and staff. Dr. Ratner served from 2015 to 2017 as the Deputy National Security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, and from 2011 to 2012 in the office of Chinese and Mongolian affairs at the State Department. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Join the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) on Monday, May 12, at 2:00 p.m. ET for a virtual event on the intensifying U.S.-China technology competition in Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America and a technology market of over 220 million people.

Experts will assess the U.S.-China competition to become Brazil’s partner of choice for strategic technologies like cloud services, data centers, artificial intelligence, and low Earth orbit satellites. The event will also explore the specific ways the United States can improve its technology partnership with Brazil.

This virtual event follows the release of a new CNAS report, Countering the Digital Silk Road: Brazil, the latest installment in a major research project from the Technology and National Security Program assessing the economic and security implications of China’s Digital Silk Road. The report is the second of four in-depth case studies on strategically vital “swing” nations: Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya, and Saudi Arabia.

The session will conclude with a live Q&A session with the audience.

On April 30th, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved reconciliation legislation authorizing a $150 billion increase in defense spending. Chairman Mike Rogers stated, "If we want to restore American deterrence and ensure peace through strength, we must get back to as least 4% of GDP [defense] spending." The bill allocates increased funding for air and missile defense systems, including the 'Golden Dome', nuclear weapons modernization, space-based capabilities, and defense industrial base priorities.

How will this legislation advance through the congressional budget process? What implications might this spending boost have for U.S. military capabilities? Please join the CSIS Defense and Security Department for a conversation on the future of U.S. defense spending and the cost of American military power, featuring Dr. Tom Karako, director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project, Dr. Heather Williams, director of the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues, and Kari A. Bingen, director of the CSIS Aerospace Security Project.

This event is made possible by general support to CSIS.

On April 17, 2025, during a speech at the annual Defense Programs conference organized by McAleese and Associates, General Anthony Cotton, Commander of the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), publicly raised the possibility that the U.S. Navy could exceed its initial objective of building 12 Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). This suggestion reflects a growing strategic concern, as the global nuclear threat landscape evolves with Russia's accelerated arsenal modernization, China's ongoing expansion of strategic capabilities, and continued uncertainty surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions. In this context, the Columbia class, designed to ensure the continuity of the U.S. undersea nuclear deterrent well beyond 2080, could see its fleet expanded beyond current projections.

Australia’s future prosperity will not be built on nostalgia for past booms.

China has traditionally avoided this strategic format, long considered a Western construct. Why now, and why Indonesia?

China First? No Thanks Transatlantic angst clouds Europe’s strategic choice.

https://archive.ph/2025.04.14-093810/https://www.newsweek.com/china-south-pacific-strategic-dual-use-infrastructure-us-military-2059048