GEOSTRATEGY AND NAVYPORTS IN THE INDIAN-OCEAN SINCE C. 1970

The Indian Ocean has been, and remains, of vital strategic importance as an arena of superpower rivalry and intervention, the highway for th e carriage of Middle East oil, and the theatre of local conflicts. Aga inst this background the paper discusses naval deployment by external and internal powers, and focuses in particular on the navyport and oth er support systems that have been crucial to that deployment. These su pport systems are not simply important for the projection of naval pow er, but also for their contribution to urban development, and it is pr oposed that their impacts can be clarified by recognising four types o f major navyport: (1) the metropolitan Bombay-type; (2) the big-city C ochin-type; (3) the small-town Berbera-type; and (4) the ''pure'' navy port a la Diego Garcia. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.