BRIEFINGS

To the casual observer, the Indian Ocean appears as a series of disconnected crises—a coup in an island nation, a drone strike in a shipping lane, or a new runway on a remote atoll. But for the strategist, these are not isolated events. They are “symptoms of the seam,” recurring flashpoints where the friction of global power competition meets the…

In the age of satellite warfare and cyber-espionage, the global economy remains tethered to the physical world by seven narrow maritime “throats.” These chokepoints—some no wider than a city park—are the jugular veins of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). As 2025 demonstrated, a single disruption at these points does not merely delay cargo; it re-prices global energy, rewrites insurance laws,…

For millennia, the Indian Ocean has been the world’s most sophisticated laboratory of globalization. Long before the Atlantic became a highway for empires or the Pacific a theater for world wars, the “Monsoon Trade” had already stitched together a world of African gold, Arabian incense, Indian spices, and Chinese silk. Today, the maritime rivalries between India, China, and the West…

To the map-maker, the Indian Ocean is a vast blue expanse bounded by three continents. To the strategist, it is something entirely different: a “Mandala of Interests”—a complex, overlapping system where every actor views the water through a unique and often contradictory lens. While the world’s navies agree that trade must flow, they disagree profoundly on who should guard it…

In the annals of maritime history, 2025 will likely be recorded not as a year of explosive conflict, but as the year of “structural erosion.” While the world’s attention was often diverted by the high-velocity crises of the Levant and the Pacific, the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) sent a series of quiet, persistent signals that the old order has reached…

While the South China Sea captures headlines and the North Atlantic remains the bedrock of traditional alliances, the Indian Ocean has quietly emerged as the decisive arena for the 21st century. Hosting the world’s most critical trade veins and a growing matrix of great-power rivalries, the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is no longer a mere “transit space” between East and…