India’s ocean: the story of India’s bid for regional leadership by David Brewster
Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan once stated: ‘Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene. Whoever controls the Indian Ocean dominates Asia. This Ocean is the key to the seven seas in the 21st century, the destiny of the world will be decided in these waters’. It is these prophetic words that are the pivot for the book under review, India’s Ocean: The Story of India’s Bid for Regional Leadership. This topical volume seeks to study the momentum of India’s role as an active and powerful player in the Indian Ocean in the 21st century. The backdrop of the book can be found in Robert Kaplan’s critical assessment of the Indian Ocean as centrestage for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Kaplan’s article argued that the Indian Ocean will be the epicentre for global power struggles, conflict for energy security, the clash between Islam and the West and, most importantly, the rivalry between a rising China and India, providing a realist frame for the study. It is in this complex frame of strategic shifts in international politics that David Brewster analyses India’s strategic ambitions in the Indian Ocean as part of the shifting balance of power in Asia. The author investigates whether India has the wherewithal to become the leading power in the Indian Ocean. In doing so, Brewster assesses the history of India’s emerging role and strategic outlook in the Indian Ocean and provides further enquiry into the prospects for India to achieve its ‘manifest destiny’ of becoming ‘the dominant power in the Indian Ocean as part of India’s larger destiny to become a world power’ (p. 202). Brewster has divided the book into 11 chapters based on the content, context and scope. It examines the history of domination of the Indian Ocean, including the historical role of India as an independent actor or rather a natural actor in the region, the presence of other actors in the maritime domain of South Asia, the south-west Indian Ocean, east and southern Africa, the north-west and north-east Indian Ocean, and also the dominance of extra-regional actors such as Australia, the US and a rising China. In this book, the crux of the matter lies in examining India’s growing strategic role in the Indian Ocean and assessing the trajectory of this growth, Brewster puts forward some pertinent questions, such as: what are India’s strategic ambitions?; who are India’s regional military partners?; how is India countering the rise of China in the Indian Ocean?; and, lastly, how will this battle of the giants affect Australia? In Strategic Analysis, 2015 Vol. 39, No. 4, 466–467, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2015.1047224
Maritime Security Challenges in South Asia and the Indian Ocean: Response Strategies
The Indian Ocean region, the birthplace of maritime civilization, was considered a playground of rich industrial European nations during the colonial era. With the commencement of decolonization in 1946, the euphoria of independence was overshadowed by the turbulence of internecine conflicts and inter-state wars that followed. During the Cold War era the two superpowers reinforced their maritime influence directly or indirectly through an impressive array of available port facilities in this region. History was repeating itself in an evolved form.
Human exposure to methylmercury from crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in China
Methylmercury (MeHg) accumulation in aquatic food raises global concerns about human exposure to MeHg. Crayfish is the world’s third largest farmed crustacean species and a favorite aquatic food in many countries. However, human health hazard due to MeHg exposure via crayfish consumption is unclear, partly because appropriate survey data are lacking. We report on mercury concentrations and speciation in edible tail muscle of crayfish collected from restaurants in 23 Chinese cities. On average, MeHg constituted 99.1 % of mercury in tail muscle, and MeHg concentrations were comparable with those reported for fish in China. Variation in MeHg concentrations was not attributable to broad geographic region (i.e., provinces) or tail length. For different populations, potential health risk (characterized by hazard quotient or HQ) of MeHg exposure through crayfish consumption depended largely on crayfish consumption rates. In particular, a health hazard (HQ > 1) was found for high-rate consumers (i.e., 95 %ile or higher) in some cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (MLYR), during the peak consumption season. Our results suggest that more attention should be paid to dietary MeHg intake via crayfish consumption in China, particularly for communities with high consumption in MLYR.