1 post tagged “natural resources”
In the 1930’s the Japanese Empire had the military acumen to be a Super Power in Asia and the Pacific Islands in the Japanese sphere of influence. There was one problem Japan faced with their powerful military and hegemonic agenda. Japan did not have the natural resources to maintain a military in the event a nation with natural resources challenged the expansion of the Japanese Asian grip.
Japan needed oil and metals to be a powerhouse. Japan was fully aware their expansionism would collide with the National Interests of America eventually. Preparation was needed for this confrontation. The only logical solution for a nation with the hubris of go-it-alone self-determination was to prepare tactical scenarios to weaken or strike fear in the American government to try to mold a revision of the American National Interests in the Pacific and Asian economies.
After weighing the tactics it was decided to try to take out the strength of America’s Pacific Fleet; thus the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Like it or not oil is even more important today as a source of energy today than in the 1930’s. Oil has empowered the Islamist dream of a global Muslim spread of their religion in the style of the glory days of using the sword and fear exampled by their prophet Mohammed. Without oil the Middle East would still be a third rate collection of clannish dominated nations with Islam confined. Industrially or Economic powerhouses would have zero interest in camel jockey land and Muslim Middle Easterners would probably have no interests outside of regional clannish/national interests of petty squabbling.
Indeed though there is an abundance of oil in the Middle East and it is controlled by nations that serve the harshest and conservative interpretations of their Quran, Hadith, Sunna, etc.
America and Western Europe have been natural allies since the end of WWII. Present day Russia and the former Soviet Union had their own political agenda of spreading repressive Communism (really Russian hegemony in the name of Communism). China was somewhat under the Russian orbit of Communism but fiercely independent and weaker than Russia and America industrially.
As interdependent Globalism began to evolve in the economies of the world, things began to change.
Eastern Europe became liberated from the grasp of a weakened Russia after the fall of repressive Communism as the governing principle. Russia by no means the Super Power of the USSR days, but still powerful enough to have hegemonic designs in their immediate region.
Global economics suddenly saw the flow of capital into India and (ironically anti-capitalist) Communist China.
Suddenly China had the money to build a military infrastructure that will eventually challenge or test the strength of the current hyper-power America.
Globalism has conjoined the world into a global economy in which the power of capitalism (for better or worse) connected humanity for the first time in a state that transforms National Interests to the Global Interests of individuals.
There are two huge down sides to this Global Interest. There are still powerful nation-states that have developed cultural values that do not match the Global Interests.
America has iconized its Constitution as the measuring stick of what Freedom, Liberty, Civil Rights, Domestic Tranquility and the Pursuit of Happiness is. There is political polarization on defining the direction of those freedoms; nonetheless on both sides of the polls the essence of the Constitution is sacrosanct.
Western Europe has taken a more egalitarian definition of Liberty and Freedom that has led more to the rights of multicultural or group Liberty rather than individual Liberty; thus the attempt to balance what constitutes a hate crime or an offense to a cultural group or group phenomena.
The relatively new acquisition of freedom in Western Europe is trying to discover the path of American Liberty, European Liberty and the former rule of Law left behind from Soviet control.
Whether Russia has been Czarist, Communist or toying with the concepts of Democracy; has always been the State defines the welfare of the people. I believe Russia will eventually lose most of the tenets of Democracy to go back to what it knows best on how to govern their people; i.e. a combination of benevolence and the stick to inspire Russian Patriotism and Pride from the State. This means Russia will again challenge Europeans and America with their own hegemonic goals (at least regionally).
There is the Third World. The Third World struggles to instill Democracy while battling the evils of political and/or criminal corruption or they are just plain dominated by a strong man with some kind of military support to remain in power until a revolution or assassination replaces one strong man for another.
And of course there are the oil Baron Nations of which most are Muslim and being Muslim and feeling empowered by oil wish to spread political Islam globally.
So here is the problem: there is actually a Global Interest that affects individuals economically but no power structure to enforce the Global Interest. Why? The reason is the globe is still ruled by Nations – some good and some bad (and flowing to downright evil). Their ideologies clash forming diverging National Interests according to the ideology. When the National Interests clash it boils down to one mitigating factor in this day and age – oil and how to attain it economically.
The day that oil threatens the ideology of the Nation or Nations that have military clout regardless of ideology or religion, the next global war will occur.
Look around. Nations are slowly gravitating toward alliances (that may become official some day) in which the National Interests are shared and oil is the target.
Islamism may be the spark as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the spark for WWI; however it will be oil that is the prize sought.
I’ve written all this because America is focused (rightly so) on the Global War on Terror; however China is slowly becoming that nation (like Japan) that will be desperate for oil as a resource to the Asian and Pacific hegemon.
And again which nation is the greatest obstacle to acquiring oil and Asian hegemony? Yep, it is the United States of America.
A Chinese surprise attack will not be with planes launching from Chinese Air Craft Carriers on Pearl Harbor. It will start with surgical nukes from their submarine fleet that will first target global communications then military targets to cripple the best human fighting force the world has ever seen.
I don’t think I am exaggerating. READ THIS!
