In the third decade of this century, three contiguous regions in maritime Asia and beyond have gained immense and critical strategic significance: 

1. Western Pacific Rim of the Indo–Pacific; 
2. Western Indian Ocean–Southern Ocean; and 
3. Arabian Sea Littoral encompassing the India–Persian Gulf Region and the Horn of Africa.

India has enduring strategic interests and economic, commercial and trade linkages in these regions, and the imperatives of connectivity necessitating that these large maritime spaces remain ‘open, inclusive and free’. 

India’s role and possible engagement/entanglement in these regions merit elucidation and critical evaluation of a net assessment of opportunities and capabilities for stabilization in the region through a comprehensive policy-doctrinal-operational response.

The project partner ICWA and CPPR jointly organized a one-day virtual seminar, where across three plenary sessions, each of the three focus topics identified above was discussed by a panel of national and international experts. The seminar was the culmination of a joint research initiative of ICWA and CPPR on the theme, “Strategic Futures: Regional Maritime Security Complexes of the Western Pacific Rim; Western Indian Ocean–Southern Ocean; and the Arabian Sea Littoral.”