Grand Strategies in Contested Zones: Japan’s Indo-Pacific, China’s BRI and Eastern Africa

TLDR: The Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOOSIS) as mentioned in this paper aims to improve connectivity, promote stability and foster prosperity in the wider region while also attempting to counter the hegemony of any particular state.

Abstract: Japan’s intention of creating a Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy will potentially combine the strategic interests of four countries ( Japan, India, the US and Australia), the political and economic potential of two continents (Asia and Africa), and two oceans (Indian and Pacific). This vision seeks to improve connectivity, promote stability and foster prosperity in the wider region while also attempting to counter the hegemony of any particular state. Should this nascent strategy be suitably defined and implemented by Japan and its lynchpin partners, it may prove revolutionary in reinforcing the current balance of power across much of the globe. This article looks at Japan’s relationship with eastern Africa and attempts to define its policy alternatives vis-à-vis the region by locating them contextually. It argues that states of eastern Africa possess complex foreign policies and a web of connections to rising powers that are often ignored or misunderstood, thus making strategies pursued by large powers such as China, India or Japan potentially fraught with difficulty as they may become enmeshed in regional power squabbles.