Minerals, Markets and Maritime Strategy

The book identifies new and exotic minerals that technology has enabled to create fantastic new products. These minerals are gaining a critical and strategic salience in economies and nations would compete for these resources in the future. Post the recession new economies are emerging with higher disposable incomes which is causing a shift in the global consumer market away from the established and saturated markets of Europe and North America to Asia, Africa and South America. Also, security and economics are more closely linked than ever before and therefore the science of Secunomics-the study of the impact of economic policies on national security- a word coined by me in a RUSI seminar presentation in 2006 is a new discipline of academic research. These new developments impact the maritime strategy of nations, particularly India, since access to sources of minerals and markets are by the sea route and hence new SLOCs will get defined. The book ends with some recommendations for a maritime strategy for India.