^AFAR IMAM The Indian Ocean and Decolonisation GUNBOAT diplomacy has not paled into insignificance even after a near total liquidation of the colonial system. Neither has the rise and growth of the socialist system of nation-states managed to outlaw it. As a matter of fact, the very process of breaking the imperialist-capitalist monopoly over power and strength has generated trends for the continued use of force in international politics of today. Only the leltmotive is articulated in terms of national goals and ideals of "free world/' No other country has used force as an important instrument of its foreign policy so frequently and without inhibition than the United States of America. According to an estimate made by the Washington-based Brookings Institute, between 1946 and 1975, the United States used its armed forces 215 times beyond its borders in pursuit of its aims and objectives. If we consider the later years, 1976 to 1980, the number is still more. Such a massive use of force ranges from direct wars (Chinese civil war, Korea and Vietnam), direct intervention (Gautemala, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic), direct involvement (Greece, Cuba, Kampuchea, Laos, Angola), indirect involvement (Taiwan, Chile, Iran and the Persian Gulf). However, our count docs not include such habitual and "routine" show of force as a "deterrent", "compellant" and