ABSTRACT
Since the Second World War, the Indian Ocean Region has seen tremendous geopolitical change as almost every littoral state gained its independence, and then saw its international relations subordinated by colonial order constraints, and eventually established regional cooperation with its neighbours. In the 1960s, the old colonial order was replaced by a new order which is referred to as the Indianoceanic order. However, at the same time, the emancipation of the new born states was seriously slowed down by the projection into the Indian Ocean area of the great ideological, economic and strategic rivalry that opposed the two large superpowers of the time, namely the Soviet Union and United States. The chapter also demonstrates that Indian Ocean geopolitics is far more than specific oil issues and the military uses of the sea by the large foreign powers. It is multifaceted in nature and influenced by factors that operate at all scales, from local to global.
