| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Whether France has an integrated and consistent Indian Ocean strategy or not is open to debate. What is clear though, is that France has some strategic interests in different parts of the Indian Ocean and, on that basis, it has a set of policy priorities. These priorities are threefold: first, to exercise sovereignty over French territories in the south-west Indian Ocean and to maintain an influence in that sub-region; secondly, to deploy a permanent military presence in the Persian Gulf and in the Gulf of Aden, with a capacity to project force in the greater Indian Ocean; and finally, to build a strategic partnership with India, with a view to coordinating maritime security operations in the Indian Ocean Region. The objective of this paper is to look into the kind of challenges that these policy priorities raise for France as well as the policy choices they imply. In so doing, it will suggest that the French ambition to be a power in the Indian Ocean is faced with growing constraints and contradictions.
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