Storey, Ian

Abstract
It would be difficult to overstate the geostrategic and economic importance of Southeast Asia’s maritime domains. The sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) that criss-cross and pass through Southeast Asia function as vital arteries of world trade. Southeast Asian SLOCs have been instrumental in the success of the ASEAN countries’ export-led economic growth, while countless maritime communities dotted across the region continue to depend on the sea for their livelihoods. Further north, the economic powerhouses of Northeast Asia —Japan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and South Korea —rely on Southeast Asian SLOCs for the safe passage of 80–90 per cent of their energy supplies from the Middle East and Africa, and as conduits for transporting their manufactured goods to other parts of Asia, Europe and beyond. For the world’s Great Powers, especially the United States and Japan, but increasingly China and India, Southeast Asia’s SLOCs and maritime chokepoints such as the Malacca, Sunda and Lombok-Makassar Straits have strategic value beyond measure, linking as they do Northeast Asia and the Western Pacific with the Indian Ocean.
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