Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics - by Kent E Calder

About the Book

Reviews the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe since the Middle Ages, noting how changing technology and economic patterns have transformed the global significance of those passage ways, especially since the end of the Cold War.

Book Synopsis

Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics by Kent E. Calder examines the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe, through which much of the world's energy and information flow. Calder shows how changing technology and economic patterns have profoundly transformed the global significance of those passageways since the end of the Cold War, with fateful consequences for the strategic calculations of both the United States and a rising China. The decline of the US shipping and shipbuilding sectors, coupled with the rise of their Chinese counterparts, is a major part of this hybrid equation.

The book provides readers a history of the changing economic role of the sea lanes as well as the decline of US maritime competitiveness. It chronicles how maritime flows of energy, commodities, and information through submarine cables have increased. Calder's clear eyed assessment documents the uncertainties relating to Eurasian sea lanes stretching from Taiwan to the Red Sea and beyond in the post-Ukraine world.

About the Author

Kent Calder is currently director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and a globally recognized specialist on East Asian security and political economy. He has previously served as Special Advisor to the US Ambassador to Japan; as well as Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and held teaching and research positions at Princeton University; Harvard University; Seoul National University; Nanyang University in Singapore; and Yangon University in Myanmar. Calder is the author of twelve books dealing with East Asian political economy and global relationships, and the recipient of major awards, including Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, the Arisawa and Ohira Prizes in East Asian Studies, and a Financial Times Book of the Year award.