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 center stage in a new global contest.

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

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is organized jointly by the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year.