Chapter 1: Security in the Indian Ocean
This paper is based on Mr. Shivshankar Menon’s talk for the Institute of South Asian Studies inaugural Distinguished Visitors Programme Public Forum, which took place on 9 January 2017.
The world’s centre of political and economic gravity is moving eastwards to Asia. The maritime order in the Indian Ocean is calm but fragile due to the lack of an overarching security architecture and a diverse range of traditional and non-traditional security threats facing the region. Maritime cooperation agreements, naval risk reduction measures and negotiations around code of conduct, policing and applicability of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) are needed in peace time to keep the Indian Ocean secure in the future…