First published in 2004, this book is the inaugural volume of the Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG) and is based on a selection of papers presented at the IORG launch in Chandigarh in November 2002. The volume emphasizes the complexity and historical and contemporary geopolitical significance of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). It also propagates the necessity for increased intra-regional cooperation.

Preface; Contributors; Prologue; Charting Cooperation and Challenges: Australia and the Indian Ocean Region Penny Wensley AO 1. Changing Geopolitical Orientations, Regional Cooperation and Security Concerns in the Indian Ocean Dennis Rumley and Sanjay Chaturvedi Geopolitical Orientations 2. The British Empire in the Indian Ocean Ashley Jackson 3. The West in the Geopolitics of the Inddian Ocean in India Jean Houbert 4. Emergence of a New Geopolitical Era in the Indian Ocean: Charcteristics, Issues and Limitations of the Indianoceanic Order Christian Bouchard Regionalism 5. "There Once was an Ugly Duckling...", or, the Sad History of the Good Ship IOR-ARC Kenneth I McPherson 6. Sub-Regional Cooperation in South Asia: The Kunming Initiative P.V. Rao 7. South Africa, the Indian Ocean and SADC Aparajita Biswas Non-Traditional Security Challenges 8. AnAgenda for Environmental Security in the Indian Ocean Region Timothy Doyle 9. Re-envisioning Transboundary Water Disputes as Developmental Conflicts Radha D'Souza 10. Recent Population Movements between South Asia and Australia: Trends and Implications Graeme Hugo Ocean Security Issues 11. Indian Ocean Maritime Boundaries: Jurisdictional Dimensions and Cooperative Measures Vivian Louis Forbes 12. Contemporary Piracy, Terrorism and Disorder at Sea: Challenges for Sea-Lane Security in the Indian Ocean Vijay Sakhuja 13. Freedom of Navigation and Indian Ocean Security: A Geopolitical Analysis Sam Bateman 14. The Future for Indian Ocean Cooperation Sanjay Chaturvedi and Dennis Rumley; Index

Dennis Rumley is currently Professor of Indian Ocean Studies and Distinguished Research Fellow at Curtin University, Western Australia, and was formerly Australia's focal point to the Indian Ocean Rim Academic Group (IORAG). He was appointed as Vice-Chair of the IORAG at the IORA meeting in Bangalore in November 2011 for a period of two years.

He has been an editorial board member of various international journals and has published 11 books and more than 130 scholarly papers on political geography and international relations, electoral geography, local government, federalism, Australia's regional relations, geopolitics, India-Australia relations and the Indian Ocean Region. He is currently Chairperson of the Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG) and is Foundation Chief Editor of its flagship journal, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region. IORG is one of two Observers to IORA.

Dennis Rumley edited a major study on Indian Ocean Security which was launched in Canberra by the Australian Deputy Foreign Minister in March 2013 - The Indian Ocean Region: Security, Stability and Sustainability in the 21^st Century, Melbourne: Australia India Institute.

He has recently edited The Political Economy of Indian Ocean Maritime Africa, Pentagon Press: New Delhi, has co-edited Indian Ocean Regionalism, Routledge, with Timothy Doyle, and has had republished as Volume 15 in a new Routledge Library Editions: Political Geography series his co-edited book with Julian Minghi, The Geography of Border Landscapes.

Dr. Sanjay Chaturvedi is Professor of Political Science at the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Panjab University, India. He was awarded the Nehru Centenary British Fellowship, followed by Leverhulme Trust Research Grant, to pursue his post-doctoral research at University of Cambridge, England (1992-1995). He has also been a Third Cohort Fellow of India-China Institute at the New School, New York (2010-2012). He was the Co-Chair of Research Committee on Political and Cultural Geography (RC 15) of International Political Science Association (IPSA) from 2006 to 2012.

Founding Vice-Chairman of Indian Ocean Research Group (IORG Inc.), he is the Co-Editor of Journal of the Indian Ocean Region (Routledge) and the Regional Editor of The Polar Journal (Routledge). He also serves on the Advisory Board of Geopolitics (Routledge) and Journal of Borderlands Studies (Routledge).

Chaturvedi has served on the Indian delegations to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCMs) since 2007 and Track II Trilateral Dialogue on the Indian Ocean (TDIO) among India, Australia and Indonesia. His recent co-authored books include Climate Terror: A Critical Geopolitics of Climate Change (Palgrave Macmillan with Timothy Doyle), Climate Change and the Bay of Bengal: Emerging Geographies of Hope and Fear (Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore, with Vijay Sakhuja).