"Gaps in the U.S. Approach to Indian Ocean Security" - by CWP alum Manjari Chatterjee Miller

In 2018, the United States reorganized its largest combatant command, PACOM, into INDOPACOM, reflecting a transition in U.S. strategy that recognized the significance of the Indian Ocean to national and international security. This was a shift from the United States’ previous stance—despite the National Security Strategy’s emphasis on the Indo-Pacific as a crucial strategic space, the Indian Ocean was clearly secondary to the Pacific. With the U.S. base at Diego Garcia proving vital to its operations in the Middle East and with China increasing its presence in the region, the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has been growing in importance to U.S. security planning.

The United States’ approach to the region is still, however, piecemeal. On one hand, the United States is increasing its logistics and supply cooperation with India, the predominant IOR power, as well as improving its own technology and facilities in the region. On the other, the United States must be cognizant of India’s potential discomfort if it perceives itself as being dislodged from its pre-eminent position in the region. The United States has also been slow to extend cooperation to other Indian Ocean states. It has not adopted China’s holistic strategy of expanding its non-military involvement in the IOR, but rather has focused on its military presence.

Blog Post by Manjari Chatterjee Miller, Satvik Pendyala and Clare Harris

August 1, 2023 10:02 am (EST) 

Manjari Chatterjee Miller is senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is also a research associate in the Contemporary South Asian Studies Programme at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. An expert on India, China, South Asia, and rising powers, she is the author of Why Nations Rise: Narratives and the Path to Great Power (2021, shortlisted for the 2022 Hedley Bull Prize in International Relations) and Wronged by Empire: Post-Imperial Ideology and Foreign Policy in India and China (2013). Miller is also the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020), a monthly columnist for the Hindustan Times, and a frequent contributor to policy and media outlets in the United States and Asia.

Photo Credit: By Senior Airman Rebeca M. Luquin, U.S. Air Force - http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Oct2001/011007-F-6833L-047.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6249947