The Kra Canal : an analysis of a foreign policy alternative for the United States Navy in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

Thailand's Isthmus of Kra connects the Malay Peninsula with southern Thailand and Burma. Sixty miles in width at its narrowest point, the Kra Isthmus, over time, has been proposed as a site for the location of a canal connecting the South China j Sea with the Indian Ocean. The impact that a completed Kra Canalj would have on U.S. Naval policy in the Indian Ocean, in support of specific national interests, was analyzed with respect to the advantages and costs that would result from U.S. participation in the construction and operation of the canal. The minimal advantages offered by the canal over the existing passages through the Malay Peninsula-Indonesian Archipelago Barrier are outweighed by the costs that accrue from U.S. support of the canal, such that it is impractical and unnecessary for the United States to pursue this foreign policy in support of U.S. national interests within the Indian Ocean.