Prospects for Regional Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region

Abstract

The Indian Ocean maritime space can indeed be conceived as one oceanic space, but not quite as one region Historians have written about the long history of contact and trade done by people from its coasts. Geographers have for centuries given various names to the oceanic space. Over time the maritime space connecting the shores of East Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and Australia has come to be recognised as the Indian Ocean. In IR theory and geopolitics the Indian Ocean is often discussed as four sub-regions—East Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Australasia (South East Asia and Australia combine)—instead of one region.