close-hauled: sailing as close to the wind as possible with a tight trim.
C-130: a four-engine U.S. Air Force troop and cargo transport aircraft that can airdrop into a combat zone.
corsair: privateer, pirate.
corvette: a small warship that is easy to maneuver.
dacoit: bandit.
devale: prayer complex, shrine (Sri Lanka).
dhow: a traditional Arab boat with lateen sails.
dishdasha: a long traditional white shirtdress worn by men throughout the Middle East.
doldrums: nautical term for the zone near the equator where the winds are generally calm.
draft: the vertical measurement of the submerged portion of a ship.
entrepôt: trading post.
Ethnic Nationalities Council: coalition of ethnic political organizations in Burma.
faience: earthenware with a tin glaze.
falaj: a system of tunnels, small dams, and storage tanks used to provide reliable irrigation in arid climates.
foist: a small galley ship.
forward base: a base established in a friendly territory to extend command and control of communications, or to provide support for training and tactical operations.
Free Burma Rangers: humanitarian group working in Burma.
galleon: a large, heavy, primarily European sailing ship with multiple decks and armed with cannon.
galley: a ship propelled by oars.
GAM: Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Aceh Freedom Movement), a separatist group in Indonesia.
gantry crane: cargo hoisted by this type of crane hangs below a trolley that rolls along horizontal tracks attached to a long beam, and in this way is moved between ship and port.
GIFT: Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, a planned high-tech city to be located eight kilometers from Gandhinagar in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Golden Triangle: an area overlapping the countries of Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, where opium is produced in large quantities.
Gulf Cooperation Council: a political and economic organization of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.
haj: the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, considered a religious duty in Islam.
hallal: food that conforms to Muslim dietary laws (Arabic).
halwa: a dense, sweet confection made with flour or nut butters (Arabic).
haram: forbidden by Islam (Arabic).
Hegira: the migration in A.D. 622 of the prophet Muhammad and his followers to Medina.
Hindutva: “Hindu-ness”; also used to describe Hindu nationalist movements.
Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia: Party of Freedom, the Indonesian branch of an international Islamic organization advocating for a caliphate.
Huey: U.S. Army and Marine gunship helicopter.
imam: the leader of a mosque or a Muslim leader claiming descent from Muhammad.
Indiamen: large sailing ships used in the sixteenth through nineteenth century for trade between Europe and the East Indies.
Indo-Saracenic: a style of architecture combining Islamic and Hindu styles.
ISI: [Directorate for] Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s largest intelligence organization.
jahazi: a large dhow used for cargo and passengers (Persian).
Jama’atul Mujahideen: a militant Islamic organization operating in Bangladesh.
Jemaah Islamiyah: a militant Islamic organization dedicated to establishing an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
jilbab: in Indonesia, a head scarf worn by a Muslim woman (Arabic).
junk: derived from the Southeast Asian term jong, a range of advanced Chinese vessels that were developed by the Song dynasty in the tenth century.
Jyotirlinga: a shrine to the Hindu god Shiva.
kampong: in Indonesia, house (Javanese).
kanzu: a white or light colored robe worn by men in East Africa (Swahili).
katchiabaadi: a squatter settlement in Karachi, Pakistan.
khanga: colorful patterned garment worn by women and some men in East Africa (Swahili).
khanjar: a curved dagger traditionally worn by men in Oman (Arabic).
khareef: in Oman and Yemen, the local Arabic term for the southeast monsoon (Arabic).
kofia: a cylindrical, brimless knitted cap worn by men in East Africa (Swahili).
lateen: a triangular sail, running fore to aft, that is extended by a long yard mounted at an angle on a low mast.
load-shedding: the maintenance of a rolling blackout to prevent the complete collapse of a power system.
longyi: traditional skirt worn by men in Burma (Burmese).
LTTE: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers), a separatist organization that sought to establish an independent state in northeastern Sri Lanka.
lubban: frankincense (Arabic).
madrassa: school (Arabic).
Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia: Assembly of Holy Warriors, an Indonesian Islamic group.
masala: a mixture of spices used in South Asian cuisine.
mashua: a small dhow used for fishing (Swahili).
matbor: head or chief of a Muslim Bengali village.
mausim: season (Arabic).
Mercator projection: a map presentation in which longitudes appear as parallel lines and latitudes, also parallel, are spaced more widely farther from the equator, which tends to distort the size and shape of larger objects.
mohajir: immigrant, emigrant (Arabic). In Pakistan, Muslim refugees from post-independence India.
Muhammadiyah: Followers of Muhammad, an Indonesian Muslim civic organization.
mustan: in Bangladesh, a Mafia-style boss.
nawab: viceroy of the Mughal empire.
Naxalites: militant Maoist communist group in India.
NGO: nongovernmental organization.
Nizam: term for the sovereign of the Indian state of Hyderabad from the eighteenth century until Indian independence.
NU: Nahdlatul Ulema (Revivalist Clergy), an Indonesian Muslim civic organization.
oikoumene: an ancient term for (the known part of) the inhabited world (Greek).
Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. military response, primarily in Afghanistan, to the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Operation Unified Assistance: U.S. military response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
Pancasila: the pluralist- and democracy-affirming philosophical foundation of the Indonesian constitution, based on belief in God, nationalism, humanism, democracy, and social justice.
pesantren: Indonesian Muslim boarding schools or madrassas; the word derives from santri, meaning orthodox (Javanese).
port tack: sailing with the wind coming over the port (left) side of the boat.
pracharak: a full-time activist for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Hindi). See RSS.
prau: a light sailing craft with two hulls used primarily in the Malay Archipelago and the South Pacific.
qasr: fortress (Arabic).
Raj: the period of British rule in India, 1858–1947; also the Mughal Empire, 1526–1857.
RAW: Research and Analysis Wing (of the Indian security bureaucracy).
Rohingya: Muslim from the state of Arakan in southwestern Burma.
RSS: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Organization of National Volunteers), the umbrella group of the Hindu nationalist movement.
Saffron Revolution (2007): antigovernment protests in Burma, named for the saffron-colored robes worn by Buddhist monks.
sampan: a Chinese flat-bottomed wooden boat.
Sangh: the family of Hindu organizations.
santri: the population of Indonesians who practice an orthodox version of Islam.
sari: a length of cloth draped over the body in different styles by South Asian women.
sati: Hindu practice in which a widow is immolated on her husband’s funeral pyre.
saudade: nostalgia, homesickness (Portuguese).
SEAL: commando team of the U.S. Navy. (“SEAL” is an acronym for “sea, air, land.”)<
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sepoy: a native Indian soldier in British service.
shalwar kameez: pajama-like trousers (shalwar) gathered at the waist and ankles, and worn underneath a long loose tunic (kameez).
shikhara: in Hindu temple architecture, a tower (Sanskrit).
SLOC: sea lines of communication, the primary routes between ports.
SLORC: State Law and Order Restoration Council, the Burmese military junta from 1988 to 1997.
souk: a market or market stall in North Africa and the Middle East.
SPDC: State Peace and Development Council, the Burmese military junta, which in 1997 replaced the SLORC.
square rigging: the rigging of a sailing ship in which the principal sails are carried on yards, which are fastened perpendicularly to the masts.
string-of-pearls strategy: China’s attempts to increase its sea lines of communication across the Indian Ocean by establishing or cultivating posts at, among others, the Pakistani port of Gwadar, the Pakistani port of Pasni, the Sri Lankan port of Hambantota, the Bangladeshi port of Chittagong, commercial and naval bases in Burma, and surveillance facilities on the Coco Islands.
stupa: a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine.
Tamil Tigers: see LTTE.
Thailand Burma Border Consortium: a consortium of twelve nongovernmental organizations providing assistance to refugees from Burma.
Thakur: an Indian honorific meaning “Lord” (Hindi).
toe-popper: a small plastic anti-personnel land mine.
topi: originally from India, a lightweight, insulated, brimmed helmet made of pith or cork, worn as a sun hat.
trades: trade winds, a pattern of surface winds in the tropics blowing primarily from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere.
transship: to change from one ship to another.
VHP: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), a Hindu nationalist party.
westerlies: a pattern of surface winds in the middle latitudes blowing primarily from west to east.
NOTES
Preface: The Rimland of Eurasia
1. C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p. 65.
2. Luiz Vaz de Camões, The Lusíads, transl. Landeg White (1572; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), Canto Six: 93.
3. Charles Verlinden, “The Indian Ocean: The Ancient Period and the Middle Ages,” in Satish Chandra, The Indian Ocean: Explorations in History, Commerce and Politics (New Delhi: Safe, 1987), p. 27.
PART I
Chapter 1: China Expands Vertically, India Horizontally
1. Sugata Bose, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), pp. 10, 34.
2. Ibid., pp. 12–13.
3. Michael Pearson, The Indian Ocean (New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 12.
4. Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: Norton, 2008).
5. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration (New York: Norton, 2006), p. 31.
6. Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 291, quoting Tomé Pires.
7. John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 104.
8. Heather Timmons and Somini Sengupta, “Building a Modern Arsenal in India,” New York Times, Aug. 31, 2007. Quote from Sitanshu Kar, Indian defense ministry spokesman.
9. International Energy Agency, “World Energy Outlook 2007,” Paris, 2007.
10. Bethany Danyluk, Juli A. MacDonald, and Ryan Tuggle, “Energy Futures in Asia: Perspectives on India’s Energy Security Strategy and Policies,” Booz Allen Hamilton, 2007.
11. Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins, “Beijing’s Energy Security Strategy: The Significance of a Chinese State-Owned Tanker Fleet,” Orbis, Fall 2007.
12. Martin Walker, “CHIMEA: The Emerging Hub of the Global Economy,” A. T. Kearney report, Washington, D.C., 2008. Ten ships an hour on a 24/7 basis pass through the Malacca Strait.
13. Thomas P.M. Barnett, “India’s 12 Steps to a World-Class Navy,” Proceedings, Annapolis, MD, July 2001.
14. James R. Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara, “China and the United States in the Indian Ocean: An Emerging Strategic Triangle?” Naval War College Review, Summer 2008.
15. Juli A. MacDonald, Amy Donahue, and Bethany Danyluk, “Energy Futures in Asia: Final Report,” Booz Allen Hamilton, November 2004. The quote was originally reported by the China expert Ross Munro.
16. Holmes and Yoshihara, “China and the United States in the Indian Ocean.”
17. China is building similar facilities in Cambodia by the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea. MacDonald, Donahue, and Danyluk, “Energy Futures in Asia”; Malik, “Energy Flows and Maritime Rivalries in the Indian Ocean Region.”
18. Andrew Erickson and Lyle Goldstein, “Gunboats for China’s New ‘Grand Canals’?” Naval War College Review, Spring 2009.
19. Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasury Fleet of the Dragon Throne (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); Thant Myint-U, The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), p. 66; Richard Hall, Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders (London: HarperCollins, 1996), p. 79.
20. M. Shamsur Rabb Khan, “Time to Revive India-Iran Relations,” IndiaPost.com, Jan. 27, 2008.
21. Kemp, “East Moves West.”
22. Ramtanu Maitra, “India-US Security: All at Sea in the Indian Ocean,” Asia Times, Dec. 6, 2007.
23. MacDonald, Donahue, and Danyluk, “Energy Futures in Asia.”
24. Greg Sheridan, “East Meets West,” National Interest, November/December, 2006.
25. Ibid.
26. Walker, “CHIMEA.”
PART II
Chapter 2: Oman Is Everywhere
1. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration (New York: Norton, 2006), p. 36.
2. Alan Villiers, Monsoon Seas: The Story of the Indian Ocean (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952), p. 55.
3. Juliet Highet, Frankincense: Oman’s Gift to the World (New York: Prestel, 2006).
4. Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Oman: A Seafaring Nation (Muscat: Sultanate of Oman, 2005).
5. The Travels of Marco Polo, ch. 37.
6. Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 203; Richard Hall, Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and Its Invaders (London: HarperCollins, 1996), p. 8.
7. Keay, Honourable Company, pp. 16–17.
8. André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, vol. 1, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th–11th Centuries (Boston and Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 1990, 2002), p. 4.
9. Halford Mackinder, “The Geographical Pivot of History,” Geographical Journal, London, April 1904.
10. Fernández-Armesto, Pathfinders, p. 33.
11. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, pp. 198–99. See, too, Hourani, pp. 47, 62; Wink, Al-Hind, p. 50.
12. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, pp. 200, 208, 261.
13. Fernández-Armesto, Pathfinders, p. 64.
14. Patricia Risso, Merchants & Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995), p. 46; Philip D. Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 121.
15. George F. Hourani, Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), pp. 4, 23.
16. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, p. 242.
17. Marshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, vol. 2, The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 542–43.
18. Risso, Merchants & Faith, p
. 53.
19. Ibid., pp. 5–6, 54, 71–72.
20. Ibid., pp. 23–24.
21. Peter Boxhall, “Portuguese Seafarers in the Indian Ocean,” Asian Affairs, vol. 23, no. 3 (1992).
22. Nayan Chandra, “When Asia Was One,” GlobalAsia: A Journal of the East Asia Foundation, September 2006.
23. Hall, Empires of the Monsoon, pp. 24–25, 63.
24. Chanda, “When Asia Was One.”
25. Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, p. 253.
Chapter 3: Curzon’s Frontiers
1. George N. Curzon, Frontiers: The Romanes Lecture 1907, (1907; reprint, Boston: Elibron Classics, 2006).
Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power Page 40
