Securing peace and prosperity in the Eastern Africa Indian Ocean Realm (EAIOR) states is linked to the centrality of the Indian Ocean to the world. This realm is framed by land and seaward states along the western Red Sea and the East Coast of Africa.
These geographical spaces also played host to classical coastal city states that maintained strategic and trade relations with Asia. The strategic salience of the EAIOR is linked to evolving survival and interests of these states and other global actors.
East African Indian Ocean Realm states currently attract predatory attention for their strategic resources, and existing and envisioned infrastructure by the USA, China, Russia, European and Arab Gulf states. Notably, EAIOR states must balance their diplomacy around security interests overflows from the Pacific Realm. These include the Taiwan issue, sovereignty, governance questions, and the maritime border issues that frame superpower relations. These issues are played out in strategies and alliances like China’s One Belt – One Road (OBOR) and the ‘Quad’ that seek access or denial of this strategic interface ocean space.
In addition, the EAIOR states continue to grapple with a wide range of security challenges. This paper identifies various challenges facing the region, and, in each case, possible policies and strategies to address them.
Security Challenges invites scholars and practitioners to reflect upon strategic security challenges facing EAIOR states. Both normative discussions and empirical studies are welcome. Papers are expected to have an empirical link to the EAIOR and offer policy implications and recommendations for the region or states within the region.
Articles, Commentary and (relevant) Book Reviews, are invited and may be submitted to editor@ifrs.org.au following publication guidelines which can be accessed here.
Preference will be for papers on:
- Natural Resource Security
- Environmental, Climate and Human Security
- Insurgencies, terrorism, and State Stability
- National Security, Regional Diplomacy, and Integration
- Constitutions, Indigenous Perspectives/Culture, and National Stability
- Hegemonic Change and Regional Stability
Papers must be submitted in English, but versions may be submitted in the national language(s) of the author if the paper is accepted, and once edited.