📄 Abstract
Maritime security has re-emerged as one of the central theatres of twenty-first-century geopolitics. The oceans are no longer viewed simply as commercial highways or neutral global commons; they are increasingly becoming contested spaces where naval armament, chokepoint politics, undersea deterrence, supply-chain vulnerability and great-power rivalry converge. This article examines the changing architecture of maritime security through three interconnected developments: the weaponisation of critical maritime straits, the strategic implications of AUKUS and nuclear-powered submarine proliferation in the Indo-Pacific, and the militarisation of the Arctic as melting ice opens new routes and resource frontiers. The article argues that maritime security is being reconfigured from a relatively open order based on freedom of navigation and commercial interdependence into a more securitised, militarised and fragmented order shaped by naval competition and strategic denial. Chokepoints such as Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, Hormuz and the Suez-linked Red Sea corridor reveal how narrow waterways can be transformed into instruments of coercion against global supply chains. AUKUS demonstrates how undersea warfare and nuclear-powered submarines are becoming central to Indo-Pacific deterrence, but it also raises concerns about arms racing, alliance politics and nuclear-propulsion diffusion. Arctic militarisation shows how climate change is creating new geopolitical theatres by exposing routes, resources and strategic approaches previously constrained by ice. The article concludes that the future of maritime security will depend not only on naval power, but also on resilient supply chains, cooperative governance, undersea surveillance, crisis-management mechanisms and the ability of states to prevent strategic straits and polar frontiers from becoming permanent arenas of militarised rivalry.
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📚 How to Cite:
Dr. Shivendra Shahi , CONTESTED WATERS AND STRATEGIC STRAITS: NAVAL ARMAMENT, AUKUS AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF MARITIME SECURITY ARCHITECTURE , Volume 12 , Issue 8, August 2026, EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) , Pages: 52 - 57 , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra31123