Geopolitical Study of Indian Ocean: An analysis of India-China Relations

Abstract

‘Geopolitics’ focuses on geography through the lens of politics. In other words, Geopolitics thinks about politics but the idea behind this thinking is the geographical conceptualization. Geopolitics is the study of the effects of geography on international politics and international relations, it is the method of studying foreign policy to understand, explain, and predict international political behaviour through geographical variables. Geopolitics is the interaction between geography and politics where geographical exercises played a leading role in the politics of a state. Haushofer stated as “Geopolitics is the new national science of the state, a doctrine on the spatial determinism of all political processes, based on the broad foundations of geography, especially of political geography” (Gyorgy 1944). This paper is about the geopolitical and strategical importance of the Indian Ocean. Also traces China’s impact on the Indian Ocean region. These questions follow the case study of India-China relations. In short, the mainly discusses firstly, the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean then how China is making efforts to dominate the region with its expansionist policies. After that, the study seeks to define the contradictions over the region that happened due to China’s expansionist policies.