Suchergebnisse

France provides an original variant of decolonizing without disengaging in the Indian Ocean. Unlike the other great powers with interests in the region France sees herself as belonging to the Indian Ocean on the same footing as the indigenous states. The legitimacy of her claim is based on the creole islands of the south west sector of the Indian Ocean which had no precolonial history and whose creole societies and cultures have been entirely created under European rule. While Mauritius and Seychelles were decolonised by Britain but have retained their "Frenchness", Reunion has been made an integral part of France. The island states' recognition of France as a littoral state of the Indian Ocean adds to the legitimacy of her position in a region which has regained considerable strategic significance with the ending of the thalasocratic hegemony of the West in an Ocean across which flows the oil life-line of Europe. (Internat. Political Science Association)