Why Trump’s Indo-Pacific Command name change matters

To understand what is being discarded, it helps to recall how the Indo-Pacific construct came into being. Also read: How does China see US’ Indo-Pacific name change? The US strategy toward the Indian Ocean The US launched the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in 2004 with the objective of curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The countries and non-state actors on which the PSI focused covered a geographic arc stretching from Iran to North Korea — spanning the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean — giving America the necessary reason to formalise the Indo-Pacific as a strategic region. In…