ABSTRACT
Contemporary scholars, statesmen, and military planners have become increasingly aware of the compelling relevance of the interrelationship between the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific. Indeed, there is broad recognition that the maritime security of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific is absolutely essential to sustain the interdependent, industrialized, contemporary global economy, as well as, more broadly, to support the global community in the twenty-first century. Consequently, while recognizing the continuing significance and interrelationships between the various sub-regions subsumed within the broader Indian Ocean basin and the Western Pacific region, it is now more important than ever before in history to view and predicate policies based upon the fact that the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific constitute an integrated, geo-strategic whole.
