Guest Speaker: Darshana M. Baruah

A major new examination of the Indian Ocean, revealing how the region has become a hotly contested geopolitical flashpoint 

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 centre stage in a new global contest.

This is an in-person event. Registration is required.

The Contest for the Indian Ocean And the Making of a New World Order is available for purchase here.

About the speaker

Darshana M. Baruah is a foreign policy scholar with a focus on maritime security. She has spent time working on her research across think tanks in Delhi, Canberra, Tokyo, and Washington, DC. She directed the Indian Ocean Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, and is currently based in Australia with the University of Melbourne. She engages with policymakers and officials across the world on issues of maritime security, the Indo-Pacific, and geopolitics.