This Article provides a political and legal roadmap of Kaplan’s majestic work [Monsoon], analyzing the most pressing issues affecting Indian Ocean security against the backdrop of international law. The Indian Ocean provides a look at regional politics from the maritime perspective, which is a fundamentally different lens than that obtained by focusing on the land terrain. At the intersection of geographic-and therefore geopolitical-dimensions of the Indian Ocean and the international laws–regimes and rules that serve as a backdrop against which geopolitics unfolds-this Article serves as a complement to Monsoon by providing a vision of how the international law of the sea will help to shape strategy.
