ABSTRACT
In pre-industrial times the IOR region constituted one of the first and major long-distance trading networks. Regional economic unity was disrupted from the late nineteenth century by divisions imposed firstly by colonization, and secondly by Cold War ideology. These have been reflected in economic organizations that have developed within the region. The distinctiveness of such organizations has been in part responsible for, and in part been accentuated by, remarkably different growth patterns experienced since the 1970s by the different regions that border the Indian Ocean. The IOR, the most recent of such organizations, is both modelled on existing regional organizations, and aims to link members of these sub-regional groupings over a geographically large area. This chapter traces the emergence and outlines the structure of the major economic groupings which will impact upon the future membership, structure and policies of the IOR.
