Great Power Clashes Along the Maritime Silk Road: Lessons from History to Shape Current Strategy

Current concerns in maritime Eurasia are centered on rising powers China and India. By way of background to understanding the current regional great power rivalry within maritime Eurasia, this book asks what we can learn from historic Eurasian maritime geopolitical players and their interactions that will inform and enlighten today's international relations practitioners. Great Power Clashes along the Maritime Silk Road examines three seminal historical cases of maritime clashes in the China Seas, four in the Indian Ocean, and one in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Each of these is an example of local or regional conflict reflecting the circumstances of time and place. The cases have been chosen to provide a comparative framework of significant premodern maritime clashes distributed along the full Eurasian maritime perimeter. Lessons include understanding struggles between continental and maritime powers in Eurasia, and understanding the decisive impact that naval leadership, intelligence, technology, alliances, and identity have had in the past and will have on the future.



About the Author
Grant Rhode is a senior lecturer at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, adjunct professor at the U.S. Naval War College, and associate in research at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Rhode was trained in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and researches and writes on ancient and modern maritime silk road issues.