Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power

• Author: David J. Krynicki
• Position: Judge Advocate, U.S. Army
• Pages: 328-336

328 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 211

MONSOON: THE INDIAN OCEAN AND THE FUTURE OF

AMERICAN POWER1

REVIEWED BY MAJOR DAVID J. KRYNICKI*

[A]s China and India compete for ports and access

routes along the southern Eurasian rimland, and with

the future strength of the U.S. Navy uncertain, because

of America’s own economic travails and the

diversionary cost of its land wars, it is possible that the

five-hundred year chapter of Western Preponderance is

slowly beginning to close.2

I. Introduction

If you build it, they will come.3 While not speaking of building a

baseball diamond in a farm field, the basic premises of building and

thinking big are at the heart of Robert Kaplan’s Monsoon: The Indian

Ocean and the Future of American Power. Kaplan asserts that the United

States must build its foreign policy in the Indian Ocean region in order to

capitalize on big economic opportunities. Current U.S. foreign policy

ignores the region due to the primary focus on terrorism and the wars in

Iraq and Afghanistan.4 This unfocused foreign policy is allowing other

countries to capitalize on the region’s economic opportunities.5

Kaplan posits that the countries surrounding the Greater Indian

Ocean are the future frontiers of global economic development.6

International law attorneys, foreign policy experts, business investors,

* Judge Advocate, U.S. Army. Presently assigned as Brigade Judge Advocate, 4th

Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division (Task Force 4/1) Forward

Operating Base, Sharana, Afghanistan. Written while as a Student, 60th Judge Advocate

Officer Graduate Course, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, U.S.

Army, Charlottesville, Virginia.

1 ROBERT D. KAPLAN, MONSOON: THE INDIAN OCEAN AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN

POWER (2010).

2 Id. at xii.

3 FIELD OF DREAMS (Universal 1989) (The author’s adaptation of the quote, “If you build

it, he will come.”).

4 KAPLAN, supra note 1, at xii, 229, 249, 251, 270.

5 Id. at 13.

6 Id. at xi.