Island chain strategy

The island chain strategy is a strategic maritime containment plan first conceived by American foreign policy statesman John Foster Dulles in 1951, during the Korean War.

[1] It proposed surrounding the Soviet Union and China with naval bases in the West Pacific to project power and restrict sea access.

For the United States, the island chain strategy is a significant part of the force projection of the U.S. military in the Far East.

[citation needed] As it is located within the middle portion of the West Pacific, it acts as a second strategic defense line for the United States.

[1] The proposed fourth chain would include places like Lakshadweep, the Maldives and Diego Garcia to disrupt the String of Pearls waypoints towards the Persian Gulf such as the Gwadar Port and Hambantota; while the proposed fifth chain would originate from Camp Lemonnier in the Gulf of Aden, around the Horn of Africa and along the entire East African coastline through the Mozambique Channel (between Mozambique and Madagascar, including the Comoro Islands) towards South Africa, to encircle the Chinese naval base at Doraleh, Djibouti and sabotage China's trade with Africa.