• Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
Carnegie Global logoCarnegie lettermark logo
DemocracyIran
  • Donate
{
  "authors": [
    "Ashley J. Tellis"
  ],
  "type": "other",
  "centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
  "centers": [
    "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
  ],
  "collections": [],
  "englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
  "nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
  "primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
  "programAffiliation": "SAP",
  "programs": [
    "South Asia"
  ],
  "projects": [],
  "regions": [
    "North America",
    "United States",
    "South Asia",
    "India",
    "East Asia",
    "China"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Security",
    "Military",
    "Foreign Policy"
  ]
}
REQUIRED IMAGE

REQUIRED IMAGE

Other

The Indian Ocean and U.S. Grand Strategy

The Indian Ocean is an increasingly vital geopolitical space for U.S. interests, and American policymakers take it into account when formulating a U.S. grand strategy.

Link Copied
By Ashley J. Tellis
Published on Jan 17, 2012
Program mobile hero image

Program

South Asia

The South Asia Program informs policy debates relating to the region’s security, economy, and political development. From strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific to India’s internal dynamics and U.S. engagement with the region, the program offers in-depth, rigorous research and analysis on South Asia’s most critical challenges.

Learn More

Source: Presentation at the National Maritime Foundation

I am going to speak on the subject of "The Indian Ocean and U.S. Grand Strategy" this evening, and I am going to divide my remarks into three parts. First, I am going to start by exploring what the traditional significance of the Indian Ocean has been. Then, I am going to explore the question of whether the Indian Ocean is on the verge of becoming more important as a geopolitical space. Third, I will conclude briefly with some remarks about what the United States ought to do with respect to the Indian Ocean. In the course of my lecture, I will elaborate in an extended form on my central thesis: today, the Indian Ocean is on the cusp of becoming an arena of systemic significance.

Let me start by saying a few words about the goals of U.S. grand strategy, because that is really the backdrop within which everything that I say about the Indian Ocean must be taken into account. As a given, the natural object of any country’s grand strategy is the protection of its homeland. Beyond that, however, I would argue that since World War II, U.S. grand strategy has had three basic goals. The first is to prevent external hegemonic control over critical geopolitical areas of the world, and to prevent the rise of other threats to the global commons. The second goal is to expand the liberal political order internationally. Finally, the third goal is to sustain an open economic regime. Everything that the United States has done since the end of World War II can easily be fitted into a matrix that has taken its importance and its bearings at various points from one or more of these three goals. These fundamental goals have not changed, and they are unlikely to change in the future.

About the Author

Ashley J. Tellis

Former Senior Fellow

Ashley J. Tellis was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Recent Work

  • Paper
    Multipolar Dreams, Bipolar Realities: India’s Great Power Future

      Ashley J. Tellis

  • Commentary
    India Sees Opportunity in Trump’s Global Turbulence. That Could Backfire.

      Ashley J. Tellis

Ashley J. Tellis
Former Senior Fellow
SecurityMilitaryForeign PolicyNorth AmericaUnited StatesSouth AsiaIndiaEast AsiaChina

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

More Work from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

  • Commentary
    Carnegie Politika
    Brussels and Baku Are Talking Again: What Next?

    Azerbaijan’s relations with the EU appear to be going from strength to strength after several years in the deep freeze following the military escalation in Karabakh in 2023 and Azerbaijan’s bitter fallout with France and several other EU member states.

      Shujaat Ahmadzada

  • Commentary
    Strategic Europe
    Trump Turns NATO into a Tool of Coercion

    The full list of humiliations Europe has endured since Donald Trump returned to the White House makes for grim reading. But Washington’s adversarial approach to its allies undermines its own power base.

      • Rym Momtaz

      Rym Momtaz

  • Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella on stage during a Rassemblement National RN rally For la France du Travail in Macon in Saone et Loire France May 1 2026
    Paper
    The French Far Right’s Foreign Policy: Big Ambitions, Uncertain Direction

    The National Rally’s electoral strength, coupled with its internal fragility at a crucial political juncture, contributes to foreign policy vagueness.

      Catherine Fieschi

  • Article
    India–Africa Strategic Partnership: Challenges, Potential, and Possible Pathways

    A partnership between India, a country of subcontinental size, and Africa, a continent of fifty-four countries, may seem asymmetric until one notes that both are home to nearly the same number of people—1.4 billion. This essay spells out the existing challenges to the partnership, its optimal potential, and the possible pathways to realize it over the next quarter-century.

      Rajiv Bhatia

  • Commentary
    Diwan
    Pushing Beirut into an Armed Conflict With Hezbollah Is Insane

    The party’s domestic and regional roles have changed, so Lebanon should devise a disarmament strategy that encompasses this.

      Michael Young

Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie global logo, stacked
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NWWashington, DC, 20036-2103Phone: 202 483 7600
  • Research
  • Emissary
  • About
  • Experts
  • Donate
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Contact
  • Annual Reports
  • Careers
  • Privacy
  • For Media
  • Government Resources
Get more news and analysis from
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
© 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All rights reserved.