Competition amongst great powers is not new in international politics. It has traditionally been the driving force for the creation and collapse of empires and states. In the 19th–20th centuries, the British Empire established its dominion in the world over and maintained an uncontested global supremacy. To secure Britain’s global dominance, in 1904, Sir Halford Mackinder dazed the world with his heartland theory. Ever since then, the theory remains one of the most discussed geopolitical theories. The article does not pretend or oblivious of the heaps of criticism Mackinder’s theory has received over several decades, it nonetheless, employs the theory in the context of the contemporary international political environment, with particular reference to the happenings around the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Arabian Sea. So therefore, the point of analysis here centres around the applicability of the theory and the implications posed by Mackinderian geographical rationalisation in formulating foreign policy around what the article considers as the contemporary pivot area – the Indian Ocean. Through the theoretical understanding of Mackinder’s thesis, the article argues that the Indian Ocean and its adjoining seas corridors and Straits are ‘pivot areas’ potential enough to generate competition amongst regional and global powers. The new ‘pivot areas’ is enormously endowed with natural resources and is the major energy highway(s), upon which global economies are dependent. The article concludes by arguing that a complex power competition (CPC) is brewing along the neo-pivot region.

Dr. Hassan Abbas is a Pakistani-American academic whose interest area lies in South and Central Asia. He is presently a Professor and Chair of the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at National Defense University, Washington, DC. Similar to his previous books, Hassan Abbas has taken up yet another topic that revolves around the statehood of Pakistan.