The costliest pearl – China’s struggle for India’s Ocean

Like all his other books, this one by Bertil Lintner too is a fascinating read. Good book to understand the emerging big power game, ‘a new cold war’ as Lintner describes it, in the Indo-Pacific region today.

Indo-Pacific has emerged as the most important and happening region in the world in global geo-politics today. All the big and emerging powers have their base here. The proverbial elephant in the room for this region is China. So much has been written about China and its designs in this region and in the larger global politics. Yet this book stands out in the sense that it focuses on the countries in the Indo-Pacific region, big to tiniest, and discusses how the Chinese influence is growing in each of those countries.

Besides China’s geo-political endeavors, this book also gives the reader a complete overview of the political history of each of those nations. Many unknown facets of these countries in our neighborhood have been eloquently brought out by Lintner. A must read for foreign policy buffs and strategic enthusiasts.