Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from China, India and the United States.

• Author: Collin, Koh Swee Lean
• Position: Book review

Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from China, India and the United States. Edited by Mohan Malik. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. Hardcover: 294pp.

Against the backdrop of the shift in global economic power to Asia, the emergence of Asian Great Powers--China and India especially--and America's "pivot" to Asia, the Indo-Pacific concept has gained salience. Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: Perspectives from China, India and the United States could not, therefore, have been more timely. Organized into four distinct parts, this volume captures the essence of contemporary debates on the prospects for and challenges to multilateral cooperation in a geostrategic construct straddling two of the world's most important oceans. Contributors from the academic and policymaking communities, representing Chinese, Indian and Western perspectives, make for a balanced analysis.

In a concise Introduction, Mohan Malik provides an overview of contemporary Indo-Pacific security developments and key research questions which neatly sets the stage for subsequent discussions.

Part One, "Mapping the Indo-Pacific Region", represents a noteworthy attempt to make sense of the Indo-Pacific concept that has found salience in academic and policy discourses. Rory Medcalf gives an excellent overview of the historical and contemporary background to the concept. In the following chapter Yang Yi and Zhao Qinghai go on to argue that its emergence has been closely linked to the evolving strategic agendas of New Delhi and Washington. The two chapters in Part I shed light not just on the conceptual underpinnings of the term "Indo-Pacific", but also highlight that this concept itself is not entirely new. As Medcalf succinctly puts it, this concept is "back in name and substance". The Indo-Pacific--which he describes as a strategic system with fluid boundaries but some clear defining features--include the economic and security connections between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and intersecting interests and reach of several key powers such as China, India and the United States, (p. 45) Recent developments, for instance the growing prominence of this term being used in the policy discourses of these key powers and the rapidly-growing economic and strategic importance of the region vis-a-vis Europe, thus far attest to this observation.

Part Two, "US, Chinese and Indian Perspectives on Maritime Security", provides a concise treatment of issues...