Retired Admiral Stavridis Warns of Global War in 2084

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]I'm pleased to welcome now retired admiral James Stroud-Dinz. He is a former supreme allied commander of NATO, a Bloomberg opinion columnist, a vice chair at Carlisle, and he's also the coauthor of twenty eighty four, a novel of future war. This comes after, 2034 and 2054. Read them both and love them. Look forward to reading this one, admiral. What, is the premise?

[00:00:25]Give us the basic setup for 2084.

[00:00:29]Book is set in that year, 2084, and alliances have scrambled. They've shifted. Now The United States and China are aligned, and they are confronting powers from the center of the world, if you will, the equatorial nations, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria. By 2084, because of global warning, those nations are going to want more land, reparations. They have a fleet. They're coming north, and it's a a confrontation that ensues. And I I'll I'll give you just a tiny spoiler.

[00:01:08]Deep in the book, there's a woman planting grapes, wait for it, in Greenland. So a lot going on in the book, a great summer read looking ahead to that year, 2084.

[00:01:21]How realistic are, some of these concerns? I was looking at, Robert Gates wrote a blurb for your book and said it's a terrifying reminder, I'm paraphrasing here, of how quickly things can spin out of control. Have we have we seen some of that happen this year in the Strait Of Hormuz?

[00:01:40]Absolutely. And it's a a good reminder. Look back a hundred years. How did the first World War start back in 1914? Miscalculation, escalation, Same scenarios in the present day. You see them in and around the straight, and very likely, unfortunately, we'll continue this pattern in 2084. The more we think about it and try to reverse engineer it, the better our chances of avoiding it.

[00:02:12]I'm I'm wondering about, your writing process, admiral, because, you know, in in trying to analyze how Iran would react, it seems this administration didn't expect them to close the Strait Of Hormuz. But when I talk to former Pentagon officials, they say they've been gaming this out for decades, and that was always one of the possibilities. When you were active in the military, I imagine you were gaming out potential situations. Is that how you put these books together?

[00:02:43]It is how we put books together, and let's just take straight of Hormuz. I've sailed through it close to a 100 times as a naval officer. I know those waters intimately.

[00:02:53]Yes. We have been planning and gaming the idea of a straight closure for decades. Why we did not anticipate Iran using that card surprises me. Now we've really only got three options. Number one, we can walk away from it bad. Number two, we can return to massive military strikes, I think bad, very expensive retaliation against our Gulf allies. Option three, which is where we all kinda hope this is gonna land at this point, is what's unfolding.

[00:03:31]It's a two point peace plan. Open the Strait Of Hormuz. We will lift the blockade on your ports. We'll park the nuclear discussion in a sidecar to be negotiated further. So I think that's where we're gonna land kinda two and three, 65% confidence. Let's hope for we need to avoid further escalation here. That's been a a footfall again and again in human history.

[00:03:58]Doesn't the president have to get a better deal than the PCA, in order to bring this thing to an end? I mean, we can't leave it, just as bad as it was before.

[00:04:12]It is unfinished business of the worst kind, and I agree with your premise, and I think that's in president Trump's mind as well. He wants a real sense of guarantee. I think the number in his head is probably at least a twenty year, and plus he wants to get the nuclear material physically out of Iran. Now those are gonna be difficult negotiations. The deal on the table as reported as our correspondent just told us is to conduct that negotiation separately, seriously, but into the future. All this, a very complex set of choices for president Trump. Let's hope we can at least get this straight open and get the global economy out of irons.

[00:04:59]How is you know what? When I look back at, at 2034, your first novel, I think a lot about Taiwan and its independence, China's ambitions to completely control that island nation, which controls itself, the chip production for for the world has become so important. How likely is it that China looks at what we've done in Iran, what Russia's done in Ukraine and says, alright. Now we're gonna go and and take Taiwan.

[00:05:30]Certainly a consideration. I'm sure Beijing is contemplating all those scenarios. I think there are three quick reasons why it's unlikely we're gonna see president Xi kind of lunge at the ball here and invade Taiwan. Number one, he's built a big, beautiful, glittering military. It has no real combat experience. He just fired about half his admirals and generals. I don't think militarily he feels ready to make that move. Number two, sanctions. He's watching the sanctions applied to Iran, the sanctions applied to Russia. That has to give him pause as he continues to build his own economy. And then third and finally, from the the perspective of China, they know if they invade, it's not like the Taiwanese are gonna show up on the invasion beach and hand the keys to the fabs for the chips to China. They're gonna blow those fabs. That's gonna create a a global challenge economically. Xi doesn't want that either. So I don't think a near term invasion of Taiwan is in the offing. Let's hope not.

[00:06:40]Can I ask what you think about our preparedness? I mean, we all hope, that the military industrial complex can produce munitions faster and and more efficiently and, of course, that we still have enough left. But I continue to see reports that we've used a lot of, for example, cruise missiles.

[00:07:02]Cruise missiles, also air defense missiles, the Patriots, the THAADs. I I wouldn't say we're running short of those, but we have used a great deal of the existing stocks. We still have a lot in reserve. I think we're still relatively well prepared. And our defense industrial base, what what has been called the military industrial complex, defense industrial base is still fairly capable. We could go into depth on some some weaknesses. But overall, I would say to our opponents, don't bet against us. We can replenish those stocks quickly.

[00:07:41]Yeah. I think, we can have confidence saying we still have the most powerful military in the world. Going back to your experience in the Strait, admiral, we have seen reports that the Iranians are gonna need to take their minds out of the water within the first thirty days if we get this, extended ceasefire. How likely do you think it is they'll be able to do that? I mean, we've hit them, so hard. I imagine there, a lot of people who laid mines and are no longer with us. How difficult is it gonna be to clear up that strait?

[00:08:14]I think it's going to be quite difficult. And and every time I hear the the supposed details, the one that kind of gets my attention as an admiral is and Iran will clear the mines that they placed in the water. Let me tell you, it's not a precise business. When you're clearing mines ashore, yeah, you have a very precise idea where that mine is. Many of these mines could have broken away from their moorings. They could be drifting around the Gulf. They will know where some of them are. They may have lost track in all the fog of war of others. I think if I'm a merchant captain, the master of a huge tanker, boy, I'm not looking for the honor of being the first ship through the straits after they're cleared by the Iranians. So I think that's a thirty day process. That's kind of a minimum. Then we are gonna want US, European, maybe Asian minesweepers, our allies, partners, and friends to sweep that channel as well and make sure it's clear. This is not gonna be just snap your fingers and open this straight.