CMSS Online Seminar: Strategic Competition in the Indian Ocean

We are pleased to invite you to an online seminar on

Strategic Competition in the Indian Ocean: Consequences for Major, Middle and Smaller Powers

Dr David Brewster, Senior Research Fellow with the National Security College, Australian National University

Abstract
Important changes are occurring in the strategic dynamics of the Indian Ocean. These are being driven by changing roles of the United States, India and China, and particularly by growing strategic rivalry between the latter two. This has important consequences for countries in the region. The region’s middle powers, including Australia and several emerging middle powers, are being forced to play a much more active role in the past, to help stabilise the region and contribute to regional security. Growing major power competition is also increasingly putting smaller or developing countries in a difficult position. This presentation will explore options available to Indian Ocean states to mitigate the adverse effects of strategic competition, including the value of declaring ‘neutrality’, placing reliance on multilateral structures, and building new webs of relationships in the region.

Speaker

Dr David Brewster is a Senior Research Fellow with the National Security College, Australian National University, where he is one of Australia’s leading experts on security in the Indian Ocean region, including geo-environmental security issues.

Dr Brewster’s books include India as an Asia Pacific power, about India’s strategic role in the Asia Pacific and India’s Ocean: the story of India’s bid for regional leadership which examines India’s strategic ambitions in the Indian Ocean. His latest edited volume is India and China at Sea: Competition for Naval Dominance in the Indian Ocean.

Dr Brewster’s recent reports include:

• Australia’s Second Sea: Facing our Multipolar Future in the Indian Ocean which proposes a new economic and security strategy for the Indian Ocean region.

• Ocean Horizons: Strengthening maritime security in Indo-Pacific island states, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2019 (with Anthony Bergin and Aakriti Bachhawat).

• Geo-environmental Security Challenges in the Indian Ocean Region: Setting a Regional Agenda, Emirates Diplomatic Academy, 2019.

• Environmental security in the eastern Indian Ocean, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: A risk mapping approach, National Security College, 2019 (with Anthony Bergin, François Gemenne and Paul Barnes).

Online seminar via Zoom: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/83340063355?pwd=MmRyZmk3OVhZWUxmbW9tUnB6VE5jQT09
Password: 193092

For further information:
Dr Azim Zahir, Research Fellow, CMSS
M: 0417800303 | E: azim.zahir@uwa.edu.au