Abstract
We take aim at “offshore balancing,” a foreign-policy concept that has come into vogue in a United States beset by war weariness, a stagnant economy, and skyrocketing defense procurement costs. Retiring from continental Eurasia is an appealing prospect, but returning in times of systemic conflict would be problematic – even in the relatively accessible rimlands of Western Europe and East Asia. It verges on impossible in the remote, inaccessible Indian Ocean. As it turns out, offshore balancing in the Indian Ocean is no balancing at all.
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