Kaplan (Center for a New American Security) claims that the 21st century will be about the countries of the Indian Ocean region, from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, the Iranian Plateau, the Indian subcontinent, and all the way to the Indonesian archipelago. His predictions are based on the region's centrality in conflicts related to clashes between Western and Islamic civilizations, energy independence and global energy trade and distribution routes, religious freedom, and American hegemony and American foreign policy. The book begins with a broad strategic overview of the region, then moves on to individual locations, reflecting on topics such as ethnic rivalry in Sri Lanka, Hindu extremism in India, Chinese naval expansion in the eastern end of the Greater Indian Ocean, renewal in Zanzibar, and climate change, extreme poverty, and Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh. This paperback edition includes a new afterword. Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
