In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, US involvement was centred around the Middle East Force (MIDEASTFOR) established in 1949, which led to the creation of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain in 1995. This anchoring of US strategy in the Gulf region highlighted the Indian Ocean’s importance as a strategic maritime corridor. Despite the absence of other great powers actively competing for influence, the Indian Ocean became one of the most nuclearised seas during the Cold War, with a high number of US and Soviet submarines operating beneath its surface.
Post-Second World War decolonisation, particularly the loss of India as Britain’s largest colony in 1947 and Britain’s dwindling military capacities abroad and the lack of political will at home, a power vacuum was created in the mid- to late-1960s in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The US seized the opportunity, expanding its strategic foothold through the British Indian Ocean Territory at Diego Garcia. As the US increased its engagement in the Gulf to protect its oil interests, Diego Garcia became a pivotal military facility, allowing the US to project power across the Indian Ocean.
Tensions peaked in 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War, when the US and Soviet Union were drawn into a standoff, with the US deploying naval assets to the Bay of Bengal in a show of force against India, which was backed by the Soviet Union.The late 1970s further escalated US-Soviet rivalry in the Indian Ocean, especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan brought Soviet forces uncomfortably close to the Indian Ocean littorals, prompting the US to assert its strategic interests through the Carter Doctrine. In his 1980 State of the Union address, President Jimmy Carter declared that, if needed, the US would use military force to defend its interests in the Persian Gulf, underscoring the region’s importance to US security strategy.
