Indian Ocean Naval Arms Limitation Talks: From a Zone of Peace to the Arc of Crisis

摘要

This study examines talks based on open source literature, declassified documents and a measure of deductive as well as inductive reasoning. It proceeds from some general, well recognized principles of arms control as a technique of international political behavior to the analysis of four specific issues that confronted the superpowers in their negotiations. By reviewing the events that form the background to the talks and identifying the rationale for the apparent shift in U.S. policy on NALT, the study analyzes these issues in terms of both the policy and operational impact on U.S. presence in the Indian Ocean region. The study concludes that there still is a strong linkage between the element of power and the geographic circumstances in which states find themselves and that the Carter Administration's mental map of the region gave rise to an arms control forum that tried to separate the geostrategic entity, the Indian Ocean, from the larger, global concerns of the United States. This in turn suggests that a broader, more sophisticated appreciation of the influence of geography on arms control in particular and national security policy in general is needed.