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Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics

The United States and China in an Age of Indo-Pacific Transformation

Kent E. Calder
Release Date: March 4, 2025

Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics by Kent E. Calder examines the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe, through which much of the world’s energy and information flows. Calder shows how changing technology and economic patterns have profoundly transformed the global significance of those passage ways since the end of the Cold War, with fateful consequences for the strategic calculations of both the United States and a rising China.

The book provides readers a history of the changing economic role of the sea lanes. It chronicles how maritime flows of energy, commodities, and information through submarine cables have increased. Calder’s clear eyed assessment documents the uncertainties relating to Eurasian sea lanes stretching from Taiwan to the Red Sea and beyond in the post-Ukraine world.

Table of Contents

  1. The Strategic Geography of Eurasia’s Sea Lanes
  2. The Changing Geo-Economics of the Sea Lanes
  3. Linking Land and Sea: The Transformation of Eurasia’s Rimlands
  4. Guardians at the Gate: The Anglo-Saxons and the Indo-Pacific 5 The Challenger: China and Eurasia’s Sea Lanes
  5. The Stem of Victory: Infrastructure and the Sea Lanes
  6. The Changing Chessboard of Sea-Lane Geopolitics
  7.  Shadows and Critical Uncertainties
  8. Prospects and Policy Implications

Reviews
Kent Calder’s important map of the world’s new geopolitical and geo-economic realities plots an illuminating course through the complexities of Eurasian maritime strategy. This will be an indispensable guide for policy professionals and thoughtful citizens alike in an age of bewildering global transition.
David B. Shear, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, former US Ambassador to Vietnam
This timely book builds exquisitely on the author’s previous studies illuminating Eurasia’s geoeconomic and political transformation—this time making legible how the strategic geography of sea lanes on and beneath the seas is redrawing the Eurasian political map. Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics offers critical insights into the transformation of the Eurasian ‘supercontinent’ for scholars and policymakers, and a fascinating read for anyone interested in world affairs.
Carla Freeman, senior China expert, United States Institute of Peace and Johns Hopkins University, SAIS
Kent Calder has written another insightful book—this time on the changing geo-economics of Eurasia's globally-strategic sea lanes. Complements his cogent analysis with practical suggestions for the policy practitioner.
Kenneth I. Juster, former US Ambassador to India

Author

Kent E. Calder is the director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a globally recognized specialist on East Asian security and political economy. Prior to SAIS, Calder served as special advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan and was the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).