The Indian Ocean Conference

On Friday the 12th the Transatlantic Academy held the conference I have been slaving away over for the past few weeks..As this was the first day-long workshop I have stitched together, I was fearful that some last minute problem would make it all unravel, but I am pleased ( and relieved) to report that everyone involved thought it was a great success. We operated under Chatham House rules as there were official representatives of the French MOD and the Indian Navy present, but we recorded the intervention of Robert D. Kaplan who delivered a brilliant keynote speech over lunch. I'll post the link here as soon as the podcast, photos and summary of the event are up on our website.

In the meantime here is the detailed program of what took place:

From Regional Sea to Global Lake:The Indian Ocean in the XXIst Century

PROGRAM

Washington, November 12th, 2010

1744 R St NW

10:30 am – 5:00 pm

10:45-11:00 am Welcome and Opening Remarks

Stephen F. Szabo, Executive Director, Transatlantic Academy

Dr. Stephen F. Szabo is the Executive Director of the Transatlantic Academy (TA). As Executive Director, Dr. Szabo works with the partners of the TA to shape the research content of each term, to assist in the recruitment and selection of Fellows and to manage the Academy.

Prior to joining GMF, Dr. Szabo had been with the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, where he served as Academic and Interim Dean as well as Professor of European Studies. Prior to that he had served as Professor of National Security Affairs at the National Defense University and Chairman of West European Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. He has written on German foreign and security policies, generational politics in Europe, and transatlantic security and political relations.

11:00-12:30 pm Panel One: India’s Ocean?

Moderated by Dhruva Jaishankar, German Marshall Fund.

Dhruva Jaishankar is Program Officer for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is also a Fellow at the Takshashila Institution in India and an occasional columnist for The Indian Express. Jaishankar previously served as senior research assistant with the 21st Century Defense Initiative and Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution; a news writer and international news correspondent with CNN-IBN television in New Delhi; and Brent Scowcroft Award Fellow with the Aspen Strategy Group. He has also been Managing Editor of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and Contributing Editor of the Journal of Public and International Affairs, and has written over 70 articles for more than a dozen publications in North America and Asia. He has been interviewed or quoted by several media outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, PBS and BBC.

· An ocean at the intersection of two emerging maritime narratives: India and China take to the Sea.

Iskander Rehman, Transatlantic Academy.

Iskander Rehman is currently a PHD candidate at CERI, Institute of Political Sciences (Science Po) in Paris and a Research Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy. Former Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in Delhi; he has contributed on strategic matters for BBC World, The Guardian, and the South Asian news channel ANI. In 2008, he received a two year grant from the French Ministry of Defense, for which he has also served in an advisory capacity. His research focuses on Indian and Chinese naval strategy, the Sino-Indian security dynamic, Asian maritime disputes and US force doctrine and posture in the WPTO.

· The Indian Ocean : An Indian Perspective.

Vice Admiral Pradeep Kaushiva, Indian Navy

An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Vice Admiral Pradeep Kaushiva was commissioned in the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy in Jan 1968, after having specialized in Communications and Electronic Warfare. In the course of a long and distinguished career, he has served both in an operational capacity, commanding Coastguard vessels and guided missile frigates, and, ashore, as, amongst other appointments, Director of Naval Signals & Electronic Warfare , Director of Naval Operations at the Naval Headquarters and Chief of Staff of the Southern Naval Command in Kochi. He retired after 40 years of service, as Commandant of the National Defence College at New Delhi which conducts one year long international course on security and strategic studies for one & two star rank officers of Indian and foreign Armed Forces as well as senior officers from India’s civil services & the foreign service. He was awarded Commendation by the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command in 1971 and decorated by the President with Vishist Seva Medal in 1993 and Uttam Yudh Seva Medal in 1997. He frequently participates in seminars and discussions abroad on issues pertaining to maritime security.

· The possibility of the Indian Ocean as a Common Strategic Space.

Sunil Dasgupta, Brookings Institution.

Sunil Dasgupta is co-author of Arming Without Aiming: India's Military Modernization (Brookings Institution Press, 2010). He teaches political science at the University of Maryland–Baltimore County (UMBC) and is the director of UMBC's Political Science Program at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Maryland. Previously, he has taught at Georgetown and George Washington Universities and reported for India Today. Dr. Dasgupta's research interests include in international relations and security studies, especially military strategy, civil-military relations, military organization, and irregular warfare.

12:30-2:00 pm Luncheon Keynote Speaker

· The Indian Ocean: Centerstage for the XXIst Century

Robert D.Kaplan, Center for a New American Security.

Robert Kaplan joined the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a Senior Fellow in March 2008, after serving as the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the United States Naval Academy.

Kaplan's most recent book Monsoon:The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power discusses the future of the Indian Ocean region and its importance for the future of energy supplies, national security and global primacy in the 21st century.

Robert Kaplan has written extensively on a range of foreign policy and national security issues for The Atlantic Monthly from 100 countries. He is the best-selling author of twelve books on international affairs and travel including: Hog Pilots: Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground (2007); Imperial Grunts (2005), Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus (2000); The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War (2000); An Empire Wilderness: Travels Into America's Future (1998); The Ends of the Earth (1995); The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite (1993); and Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History (1993); all of which grew out of Atlantic articles.

Robert Kaplan has been writing as a foreign correspondent for more than 25 years, and his essays have appeared on the editorial pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Regiment, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Marines.

2:00-3:30 pm Panel Two: China’s Growing Presence and its Wider Implications.

Moderated by Isabelle Saint-Mezard, French Ministry of Defense

Isabelle Saint-Mézard (PhD) works as a South Asia analyst at the Directorate for Strategic Affairs in the French Ministry of Defense. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University. She also lectures on South Asian geopolitics at Sciences Po Paris and Inalco. Her latest publications include: “India’s Foreign Policy after 1998: a Quest for Power”, in Jaffrelot C.(ed.), Contemporary India, Manohar, New Delhi, 2010; “India and East Asia: Through the Looking Glass”, in Thomas N. (ed.). Governance and Asian Regionalism, Routledge Curzon, London, 2009.

· Pakistan, China's gateway to the Indian Ocean

Christophe Jaffrelot, CERI, Sciences Po

Christophe Jaffrelot is Research Director at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and teaches South Asian history and politics at Sciences-Po. Jaffrelot was Director of Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales at Sciences Po, 2000-08. He has been a Visiting Professor at Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins. Jaffrelot is author of The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics, 1925 to the 1990s (1999); India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Low Castes in North India (2003); Dr. Ambedkar and untouchability: Fighting the Indian Caste System (2005); and Religion, Castes and Politics in India (2010). His most recent co-edited volumes are Armed Militias of South Asia: Fundamentalist, Maoists and Separatists (2009) and Rise of the plebeians? The changing face of Indian legislative assemblies (2009).

· The Implications of China’s Naval Strategy for the Indian Ocean.

Nan Li, US Naval War College

Nan LI is an associate professor at the Strategic Research Department of the U.S. Naval War College and a member of its China Maritime Studies Institute. He has published extensively on Chinese security and military policy. His writings have appeared in China Quarterly, Security Studies, China Journal, Armed Forces & Society, Issues and Studies, Asian Security, U.S. Naval War College Review, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and many others. He has contributed to edited volumes from RAND Corporation, National Defense University Press, Clarendon Press, M.E. Sharpe, U.S. Army War College, and National Bureau of Asian Research. He has also published a monograph with the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is the editor of Chinese Civil-Military Relations (Routledge, 2006). His most recent publication is Civil-Military Relations in the Post-Deng Era: Implications for Crisis Management and Naval Modernization (U.S. Naval War College Press, 2010). Nan Li received a PHD in political science from the Johns Hopkins University

· From the Gulf of Aden to the South China Sea: What China's Expanding Maritime Role Means for the Indian Ocean

Oriana Skylar Mastro, Princeton University

Oriana Skylar Mastro is a doctoral candidate in the Politics department at Princeton University and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University. Her research focuses on military operations and strategy, war termination, and Northeast Asia. She has worked on US China policy issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, RAND Corporation, Project 2049 Institute, US Pacific Command, and the Pentagon. Highly proficient in Mandarin Chinese, she worked at a Chinese valve manufacturing firm in Beijing and makes frequent appearances on a VOA Chinese-language debate show. Though hailing from Chicago, she holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies with honors in International Security from Stanford University.

3:45-5:00 pm Panel Three: What Role for the West?

Moderated by James Goldgeier, Transatlantic Academy

James Goldgeier is Professor of Political Science at George Washington University and former director of GWU's Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Before joining George Washington University in 1994, he served on the faculty at Cornell University and was a visiting research fellow at Stanford University. In 1995-96, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow serving at the State Department and on the National Security Council staff. His most recent book is America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (co-authored with Derek Chollet).

· The Second Ocean: US Maritime Strategy in South Asia

James Holmes, US Naval War College

James Holmes is an associate professor of strategy specializing in U.S., Chinese, and Indian maritime strategy and U.S. diplomatic and military history. Before joining the NWC faculty in 2007, he served on the faculty of the University of Georgia as a senior political-military analyst at Energy Security Associates Inc., and as a research associate at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. A former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer, he is a combat veteran of the first Gulf War.

His books include Nuclear Strategy in the Second Nuclear Age (Georgetown University Press, forthcoming, co-editor), Red Star over the Pacific: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy (Naval Institute Press, 2010, co-author), Indian Naval Strategy in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2009, co-author), Chinese Naval Strategy in the 21st Century: The Turn to Mahan (Routledge, 2008, co-author), Asia Looks Seaward: Power and Maritime Strategy (Praeger, 2007, co-editor), Nuclear Security Culture: From National Best Practices to International Standards (IOS, 2007, co-editor), and Theodore Roosevelt and World Order: Police Power in International Relations (Potomac, 2007). Under contract is Grasping for the Trident: Sea Powers Eye New Rivals (Naval Institute Press). His work has been quoted or cited in such outlets as the Wall Street Journal, The American Interest, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Xinhua, The Hindu, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and National Public Radio.

He has published over 90 journal articles and book chapters, as well as over 250 opinion columns for such outlets as the Providence Journal, the Taipei Times, Asia Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, where he was a staff columnist from 2001-2007.

· France’s role in the region.

Commander Marianne Péron-Doise, French Ministry of Defense.

Commander Marianne Peron-Doise leads the Asia Desk, Bureau of Regional Affairs, at the Delegation for Strategic Affairs ( Delegation aux Affaires Strategiques) at the French Ministry of Defense.

· Friends in need: The emergence of the Indo-Israeli strategic partnership and its implications for the Indian Ocean

Nicolas Blarel, Indiana University

Nicolas Blarel is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. Prior to joining IU, he received a B.A. from the Institute of Political Science of Strasbourg in 2005 and an M.A. in Comparative Politics (with a specialization on Asia) He is the author of Inde et Israël: le rapprochement stratégique, pragmatisme et complémentarité (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006), which delves into Indo-Israeli strategic ties, and has penned a chapter on Indo-Israeli relations in Sumit Ganguly (ed.), India’s Foreign Policy: Retrospect and Prospect (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010). In 2007, he was affiliated to French Foreign Ministry’s official think tank, the Centre d’Analyses et de Prévisions, where he focused on issues pertaining to South and Central Asia, as well as nuclear proliferation. He has penned articles commenting on Indian foreign policy, notably in the Indian newspapers The Times of India Daily News and Analysis.

And here is the list of people who attended and took part in the discussions:

List of Participants

Giovanni Andornino Transatlantic Academy Cesar Arevalo German Marshall Fund of the United States Michal Baranowski German Marshall Fund of the United States Nicolas Blarel Indiana University Nathaniel Breeding German Marshall Fund of the United States Bud Cole National War College Sunil Dasgupta The Brookings Institution Francois Delmas Center for Strategic and International Studies Daniel Deudney Transatlantic Academy Commander Peron-Doise French Ministry of Defense Lt. Col. Peter Garretson U.S. Air Force James Goldgeier Transatlantic Academy James Holmes Naval War College Christophe Jaffrelot CERI, Sciences Po Dhruva Jaishankar German Marshall Fund of the United States Vice Admiral Pradeep Kaushiva Indian Navy Robert D. Kaplan Center for a New American Security Cmde. Monty Khanna Indian Navy SooYeon Kim Transatlantic Academy Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff German Marshall Fund of the United States Thomas Legge German Marshall Fund of the United States Nan Li Naval War College Oriana Skylar Mastro Princeton University Hanns Maull Transatlantic Academy Iskander Rehman Transatlantic Academy Richard Rowson Council for a Community of Democracies Isabelle Saint-Mezard French Ministry of Defense Stefan Schirm Transatlantic Academy Stephen Szabo Transatlantic Academy Damien Tomkins East West Center Daniel Twining German Marshall Fund of the United States Harlan Ullman Atlantic Council Luis Vassy Embassy of France Ashley vonClausburg German Marshall Fund of the United States Cynthia Watson National War College Johanna Wheeler German Marshall Fund of the United States Constantino Xavier The Brookings Institution