The IOR and the Strategic Importance of the Indian Ocean Region in the Post-Cold War Era

After the Second World War and especially from the 1980s, rivalry became a persistent feature of the Indian Ocean strategic environment. The IOR was conceived in the Cold War years by the intelligentsia in geo-strategic terms. Its underwater topography, was from the 1960s to the early 1980s, ideally suited for locating submarine launched ballistic missiles. The region continues to be of importance in the post-Cold War era: the bulk of global oil resources and many valuable raw materials and strategic minerals are located in the littoral of the Indian Ocean. In consequence, the few maritime entrances to the Indian Ocean have great importance. Political instability in the Suez region has meant that the Cape of Good Hope, the only alternative oceanic entrance from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean has become particularly important for the superpowers. ¹ From 1967-72, when the Suez Canal was closed, 112,000 tankers passed via the Cape, 24,000 ocean going vessels (or an average of sixty-six ships a day) taking that route in 1975 alone. ² To the east, following the brutal suppression of the Communist revolt there in 1965, when as many as 500,000 people were killed, Indonesia was viewed as a bulwark against Communism in Southeast Asia. ³