Abstract
"Europe defined the 20th century; the Indian Ocean will define the 21st” argues Robert Kaplan. The events happening around the greater Indian Ocean will shape the future course of geopolitics at the global level. Booming economies of India and China are at the core of shifting patterns of global trade and commerce, hence making sea lanes along the ancient East-West trading routes crucial to the grand strategy of the United States, if it has to retain its great power status.
To make his case, the author traverses from west to east following the monsoon winds, threading the storyline with perspectives of three powers– the United States, India, and China and Islamic countries. Kaplan provides broad strategic overview of the region. He examines India and China from dual perspectives as both influencing each other. In his world, India is expanding horizontally across the Indian Ocean, whereas China vertically into it as well as across it. This expansion is the result of growing trade in goods, raw materials, energy resources and religious ideas.
Kaplan articulates how critical Indian Ocean region has become to American strategy in the 21st century and eloquently describes the “New Great Game” unfolding across the Indian Ocean. China has set this game in motion, as its tankers now ply the waters from Western Pacific, down through narrow Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean to Persian Gulf. Struggling to break “Malaccan dilemma”– as this narrow passageway can be blocked by outside powers anytime, and denying ship movement to China– China has responded by pursing its “strings of pearls strategy”. It is building naval power and seeking alternate supply routes that are less susceptible to interruption by U.S or other hostile powers.