The Long Littoral Project: Arabian Sea

This report addresses the major security issues associated with the Arabian Sea. It includes three separate papers that address three central issues: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, examined in an essay by RADM (ret.) Michael A. McDevitt, Senior Fellow at CNA and Long Littoral Project Director, and Dr. Michael Connell, Director of CNA’s Iran Studies Program; piracy in the Arabian Sea, explored in a comprehensive assessment by Mr. Martin Murphy of the U.S. Atlantic Council; and the India-Pakistan maritime rivalry in the Arabian Sea, addressed by Dr. Satu Limaye, Director of the East-West Center’s Washington, D.C., office.

This report is one of five that are part of CNA’s “Long Littoral” project. The term “Long Littoral” refers to the five great maritime basins of the Indo-Pacific—the Sea of Japan, the East China and Yellow Seas, the South China Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea— in order to provide a different perspective, namely a maritime viewpoint, on security issues that the United States’ “rebalance” strategy must address as it focuses on the Indo-Pacific littoral. The project also aims to identify issues that may be common to more than one basin but involve different players in different regions, with the idea that solutions possible in one maritime basin may be applicable in others. Click here to view the rest of the documents in the Long Littoral Project.