Overview

A major new examination of the Indian Ocean, revealing how the region has become a hotly contested geopolitical flashpoint Throughout history, the Indian Ocean has been an essential space for trade, commerce, and culture. Every European power has sought to dominate it. Now, after a lull in the postwar period, control of major shipping routes has once again become a critical aspect of every rising state's ambition to be a global power. Darshana M. Baruah shows how governments from Washington, DC, to Nairobi and Canberra are expanding their interests in the region. The Indian Ocean is resource rich, strategically placed—and home to over two billion people. Island nations have become more important than ever, with Madagascar forming ties with Russia and the Comoros with Saudi Arabia. It is also through the region that China engages with Africa and the Middle East. This is a compelling account of the geopolitical significance of the Indian Ocean—showing how the region has taken centre stage in a new global contest.

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9780300270914

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Reviews

"""Darshana Baruah shines a bright light on the long-neglected geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. Contest for the Indian Ocean offers compelling insights on small island states and territories that are playing a big role in shaping maritime security, the oceanic order, and great power politics in the twenty-first century.""—C. Raja Mohan, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore ""Highly readable, loaded with information and insights, Darshana Baruah’s book helps us to make sense of the great power competition unfolding in the Indian Ocean today.""—Chris Alden, author of China in Africa ""This is one of the very few books looking at the Indian Ocean from the island states perspective. Baruah looks at them not as mere objects in the China-India rivalry in the Indian Ocean but as actors whose agency has been greatly increased by the great power competition and are willing to use it for their own benefit.""—Frédéric Grare, author of India Turns East   ""A highly valuable study of the Indian Ocean. Baruah makes us fully realize the need to renew our perceptions of the Ocean by putting the emphasis on both the agency and vulnerabilities of islands. Strongly recommended reading.""—Marc Abensour, French Ambassador for the Indo-Pacific"

"""Darshana Baruah shines a bright light on the long-neglected geopolitics of the Indian Ocean. Contest for the Indian Ocean offers compelling insights on small island states and territories that are playing a big role in shaping maritime security, the oceanic order, and great power politics in the twenty-first century.""—C. Raja Mohan, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore ""Highly readable, loaded with information and insights, Darshana Baruah’s book helps us to make sense of the great power competition unfolding in the Indian Ocean today.""—Chris Alden, author of China in Africa ""This is one of the very few books looking at the Indian Ocean from the island states perspective. Baruah looks at them not as mere objects in the China-India rivalry in the Indian Ocean but as actors whose agency has been greatly increased by the great power competition and are willing to use it for their own benefit.""—Frédéric Grare, author of India Turns East   ""A highly valuable study of the Indian Ocean. Baruah makes us fully realize the need to renew our perceptions of the Ocean by putting the emphasis on both the agency and vulnerabilities of islands. Strongly recommended reading.""—Marc Abensour, French Ambassador for the Indo-Pacific ""Baruah has written a timely and significant book on the geopolitical cockpit of our times, the Indian Ocean, and its influence on world order. A book that deserves to be widely read by anyone interested in the future of the most dynamic parts of the world.""—Shivshankar Menon, author of India and Asian Geopolitics "

Author Information

Darshana M. Baruah is a foreign policy scholar with a focus on maritime security. She has spent time working on her research across think tanks in Delhi, Canberra, Tokyo, and Washington, DC. She directed the Indian Ocean Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, and is currently Director (Geopolitics and Security) at the Australia India Institute, based in Sydney. She engages with policymakers and officials across the world on issues of maritime security, the Indo-Pacific, and geopolitics. 

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