48 Chapter Three
strength to become important in the region due its internal weaknesses,
outside actors fill the vacuum^15.
Conclusion
When looking at the region of the Indian Ocean, we must understand that
the region is more a target of foreign power projection than a power center
of its own. States in the area are mostly weak, and, with the exception of
India and South Africa, do not hold any feasible ambitions in regard to
their power projection in the rest of the region. Indonesia is a rising power
but its policies are more oriented towards South-East Asia than the Indian
Ocean. Foreign influence leads to many different consequences, starting
with the issues connected to the presence of foreign military on territories
of some states, the dependence of states in the region on foreign aid, and
the presence of violent non-state groups abusing the weakness of states, or
criminal organizations doing the same. If we are to answer the question
posed at the beginning of this paper, we must point out that the role of
states is, despite many limitations, usually important at least from the
military point of view. Furthermore, the exceptions of Somalia and Yemen
are only the extreme cases, yet they do point to issues faced in other parts
of the region as well. The role of non-state actors is large, and, besides
filling the void left by weak states, they provide a challenge to these states
due to identity clashes and the proliferation of violence. The overall
setting of the region is more conflict prone than cooperative.
Despite the limited scope of this study, it pinpoints some major issues
related to the study of the region and to policy making concerning the
Indian Ocean area. Any attempt to deal with the region must remember to
take into consideration factors presented above in order to achieve its
goals and to fully understand the complexity of the region.
(^15) This is despite the fact that the important outside actors face similar challenges,
since their challenges are at least temporarily overcome thanks to the amount of
resources on their disposal.