Book Review: Right Arguments, Wrong Ocean?

Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes have produced an impressive, bold, and sustained analysis of the rise of the Chinese navy and its plausible future in challenging and thwarting U.S. influence. The book, however, is mistitled. Red Star over the Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy might just as well have been called something like "Red Star over the Indo-Pacific: China's Rise and the Challenge to the United States and India." For the arguments contained therein suggest that Beijing's primary maritime security focus will sooner or later become the Indian Ocean, with its arteries of energy supply and other commerce.