The book is a standout: it offers an excellent history of region, which benefits immensely from Kaplan’s extensive travels and his writing is both accessible and enjoyable. Intertwined with the history lesson is a modern geo-political analysis of each state, which focuses largely on the interplay between China, India and the United States unfolding all around the Indian Ocean rim as well as the interaction between the lesser states themselves. Structurally, the book is divided into sections based on countries and regions and takes the reader around the perimeter states, examining the history of each and how they have developed. The foundation of his narrative rests on the historical context of the Indian Ocean’s regular monsoon winds, which carried Islamic traders back and forth across the ocean in antiquity and set the stage for cultural and economic patterns still in play today. Kaplan builds a case for the growing importance of the Indian Ocean and its perimeter states as the new geopolitical center of the developing world. In his recent book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, Robert D. It is not an advocacy venue.Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, by Robert D. and international policy professionals to discuss the post-Cold War and post-9/11 security environment. Security for a New Century is a bipartisan study group for Congress. needs a strong naval presence in the Indian Ocean. foreign policy should look like in the region and to what extent the U.S. The question and answer period covered a wide range of issues including China’s intentions and possible military ambitions, the role of energy consumption, intra-regional relationships, as well as ethnicity and religion in the region. Ambassador Singh also briefly talked about President Obama’s recent trip to India and India’s hope for a renewal of the primacy of U.S./Indian relations in regional politics. He also remarked that as trade in the region increases, the Indian Ocean’s trade routes, in particular the Straight of Malaka, will begin to get quite crowded, therefore, making peace and security in the region an even more significant priority for the international economy. Our respondent, Ambassador Singh, noted that India has always regarded the Indian Ocean as the center of the world, and as a growing, global economic power, 97% of its trade, and 77% of Middle Eastern oil, passes through that body of water. Kaplan suggested India may begin to feel “surrounded” by the military build-up of its regional neighbors therefore, India may further align itself with those regional neighbors, such as China, Russia, and Iran, in an attempt to solidify its own security against perceived threats like Pakistan. The natural resource extraction in countries in the region engaged in protracted conflict, including Afghanistan and Burma, present continuing challenges as well. In addition, China has begun to build a large number of ports along the Indian Ocean’s coastlines to expand its economic presence in the region and globally. For many of these countries, their political structures have been in place for years and their resiliency has been repeatedly proven. Recent notions that certain nations in the region, including India and Pakistan, posses nascent political systems, presenting new problems, is not entirely accurate. He noted that while western powers have been “trapped by the Mercator map” and a cold war mentality, the center of the world may have shifted to the Indian Ocean.
Kaplan opened with a few brief remarks about his book and the polity of the Indian Ocean region. He is a career Indian Foreign Service officer having served in Moscow, Tokyo, Addis Ababa, and the United Nations, among others. Ambassador Singh is the Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. He is the author of several books, including The Coming Anarchy, The Arabist, and Balkan Ghosts. Kaplan is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington and a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly. Kaplan’s new book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power.