Geopolitics | System

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Geopolitics

Energy security and Realpolitik

Geography is the most fundamental factor in foreign policy because it is the most permanent.

Nicholas J. Spykman - The Geography of the Peace

Geopolitics is essential for understanding international affairs and conflicts. It shows that geography plays a crucial role in foreign policy. Realpolitik explains which true motives lie behind the facade of propaganda preached by the power elite. The place on earth says much about why the power elite are there. See also power politics. The power elite often use moral or ethical reasons in an attempt to justify their selfish policies. In reality international affairs have strong economic and financial motives. Especially since the industrial revolution energy security plays a defining role. The extreme form of free-market capitalism has spread to all parts of the world making the different cliques of power elite compete with each other for the earth's resources. They make use of for example soft power, involving media and propaganda, and hard power involving militarism, imperialism, war, divide and conquer, regime changes, and more.

Energy security

Every international order in early modern and modern history is based on an energy resource.

Robert D. Kaplan - The Geopolitics Of Energy

U.S. Energy Information Administration - World Shale Resource Assessments

US politics and oil enjoy a controversially close relationship.

F. William Engdahl - A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order

On August 8, 1944, the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement was signed, dividing Middle Eastern oil between the US and the UK. Roosevelt said, "Persian oil... is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it's ours."

Brian C. Black - How did oil come to run our world?

Since the industrial revolution the geopolitics of energy — who supplies it, and securing reliable access to those supplies — have been a driving factor in global prosperity and security.

Carlos Pascual - The Geopolitics of Energy: From Security to Survival

Energy security plays a defining role in international politics. The power elite gain their wealth and power largely from plundering the earth's resources. Oil has been the world's leading source of energy since the mid-1950s. With less than 5% of the world's population, the US consumes 25% of the world's oil production. Oil is of extreme importance to capitalist nations and their industries. Dependence on resources really boomed with the industrial revolution, a point of no return in human history. Capitalism and consumerism demand massive quantities of oil and other resources leading to the exploitation of the earth. The United States is the leading capitalist nation on planet earth.

Seven huge companies which have dominated the world of oil - and all our lives - since Rockefeller's first gigantic oil monopoly.

Anthony Sampson - The Seven Sisters: The great oil companies & the world they shaped

Big Oil has also declined due to the rise of OPEC in 1960. Even though both OPEC and the IOCs lost much control over oil pricing due to the rise of oil trading on the NYMEX in 1983, OPEC has helped oil-rich states with nationalized oil industries organize in order to gain economic and political power.

Steve A. Yetiv - Myths of the Oil Boom: American National Security in a Global Energy Market

The Seven Sisters, or Big Oil, are the western oil companies which dominated global oil extraction and sales until OPEC came into existence. OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was formed by exporting countries like Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Brazil, Iran and Venezuela in the 1960s. Not surprisingly many countries involved in OPEC are under attack by the Anglo-American power elite. The 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 Energy Crisis made clear how important oil is to the capitalist world.

Petrodollar warfare

Jimmy Carter - Address to the Nation on Energy (April 18, 1977)

Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.

Jimmy Carter - State of the union address (23 Jan. 1980)

The Carter Doctrine simply comes down to the self-given authorization for plundering other nation's resources.

USAF aircrafts fly over burning Kuwaiti oil wells during Operation Desert Storm, 1991

Force is used for one's own interest.

Kenneth N. Waltz - Theory of International Politics

Petrodollar Warfare examines US dollar hegemony and the unsustainable macroeconomics of 'petrodollar recycling,' pointing out that the issues underlying the Iraq war also apply to geostrategic tensions between the United States and other countries, including the member states of the European Union, Iran, Venezuela and Russia.

William R. Clark - Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

Examples of petrodollar wars or wars related to resources are the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the military intervention in Libya, etcetera. The current new Cold War has also strong motives related to energy security. All those aggressive interventions require a large army. The U.S. military is the largest institutional consumer of oil in the world which of course makes for one huge vicious cycle.

New Cold War

Russia and China increasingly seek to offset U.S. influence in Central Asia through enhanced cooperation ... The United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies play a critical role in Central Asia ... Central Asia's geostrategic qualities keep America strongly interested in retaining access and building co-operative, stable relations with regional states

Eugene B. Rumer - China, Russia and the Balance of Power in Central Asia

A rising China will seek to dominate Asia, while the United States, determined to remain the world's sole regional hegemon, will go to great lengths to prevent that from happening.

John J. Mearsheimer - The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

The logic goes like this: American military primacy should be maintained at all costs, China's rise threatens this primacy, so the U.S. should work to "balance" against — or, broadly, contain — a rising China by surrounding it with powerful American military capabilities, creating NATO-like adversarial alliances, isolating it economically, and, most recently, "imposing costs" when it does things the U.S. does not like.

Jie Dalei, Jared McKinney - Balancing China and the Realist Road to War

Eurasia has played a defining role since long before the Second World War. The Anglo-American power elite have taken advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union by means of their superior military might and their financial domination of the world. NATO expanded towards the Russian border and U.S. military bases surround China. The power elite of any superpower will do everything in their power to prevent others from becoming more powerful. They do so economically, by means of for example sanctions, and they do so militarily, by means of for example NATO expansion or the installation of military bases around the world. Hence the new Cold War.

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