Abstract

The strategic location, resource-rich waters, and geopolitical dynamics makes the Indian Ocean region (IOR) a point of great strategic importance. Global economy and peace of the countries bordering the region depend heavily on the security and stability of the region, and sea-based deterrence is a key tool in preserving both. Due to power dynamics between the US-India and Pakistan-China ties and these states' hostile actions towards one another, the IOR has turned into a battleground for South Asian regional and global powers, making it less likely that any regional or worldwide arms control or disarmament program will be supported. However, this study develops the understanding of the growing complexity and urgency as strategic concerns in the IOR regarding four nuclear powers' and the deteriorating effects of this politics on the region's strategic stability. The prime objective of the study is to explore the nature of the expanding strategic competition in the oceanic politics of the Indo-Pacific region (IOR) between two regional and two global powers and discuss the threats this region faces