Asian Maritime Strategies: Navigating Troubled Waters, by Bernard D. Cole

Asian Maritime Strategies explores one of the world's most complex and dangerous maritime arenas.

Asia, stretching from the Aleutian Islands to the Persian Gulf, contains the world's busiest trade routes. It is also the scene of numerous maritime territorial disputes, pirate attacks, and terrorist threats.

In response, the nations of the region are engaged in a nascent naval arms race. In this new work, Bernard Cole examines the maritime strategies and naval forces of the region's nations, as well as evaluating the threats and opportunities for cooperation at sea.

The United States, Japan, China, and India draw the most attention, given their large modern navies and distant strategic reach and the author concludes that the United States remains the dominant maritime power in this huge region due primarily to its dominant navy.

The Chinese naval modernization program deservedly receives a good deal of public attention, but Cole argues that on a day-to-day basis the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, as its navy is named, is the most powerful maritime force in Far Eastern waters, while the modernizing Indian Navy potentially dominates the Indian Ocean.