Sea Control

Sea Control 599: The Tanker War

Episode Summary

Tom Duffy joins the program to talk about his chapter "NATO Maritime Strategies and Naval Operations since 1985: Multilateral Naval Arrangements in the “Tanker War”” which is included in the new book from the ISPK SeaPower series titled Guardians of the North Atlantic: NATO Maritime Strategies and Naval Operations in Turbulent Times. He discusses similarities and differences between those Persian Gulf naval operations from the 1980s, and today’s Operation Epic Fury.

Episode Notes

Thomas M. Duffy is a retired American diplomat and naval officer writing as an independent researcher. His interests are naval history and maritime strategy. Tom’s assignments over his 38-year overall career with the US Government included service aboard USS Cochrane (DDG-21) during the Tanker War and as a maritime strategist in the Pentagon with the US Navy’s Strategic Concepts Group (OP-603). After joining the Foreign Service, he served primarily in the Middle East, including as the first State Department Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) with the US FIFTH Fleet in Bahrain and as US Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Tom holds a BA in Government from Notre Dame and an MA in War Studies from King’s College, London. He is a graduate of the US Naval War College and taught about strategy at the US National War College.

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.”

Links -

Tanker War in the Gulf: Operation Earnest Will, Diplomacy and Seapower in Practice

Stop Phrasing Military Moves as ‘Deterrence’

Tom’s Linkedin page