The African flank of the Great Indo-Pacific Areal: Strategic significance and associated challenges

Abstract

The “West to East shift” in the dynamics of global development and in defining trends of the world order restructuring goes hand in hand with a synchronous rearrangement of the balances of geopolitical and geoeconomic power from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific area. Those phenomena comply with the more general dialectical laws of the contemporary world development, one set of which relates, in particular, to the interconnection between the processes of globalization and regionalization, on the one hand, and the uneven development of states, on the other. In that context, the author proposes a concept that considers the Great Indo-Pacific Area (BITA) as a megazone that determines the near future of world dynamics. Unlike other proposed constructs of late under consideration, BITA encompasses all coastal states. It is neither limited nor divided by various alliances or geostrategic designs of the leading powers. The evolving post-globalization process of regionalization does not contradict the formation of BITA but, on the contrary, according to the author, constitutes a factor that ensures its long-term sustainability. The state and significance of the Western (African) flank of the BITA has so far been out of the focus of research attention. The author fills this gap by analyzing the system-forming factors of the subregion, its potential, geostrategic significance and the regional maritime strategies of the leading powers in it.