Global-Geopolitics (Term Paper Sample)

GLOBAL GEOPOLITICS: MILITARY REVIEW
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Global Geopolitics: Military Review
Geopolitics refers to the contention between the aspiring superpowers and great powers for control over resources, territory, and geographical positions including oases, river systems, canals, harbors, and ports. Taking the United States as a case study, geopolitics in the 20th century defined its foreign policy. For this reason, the country’s successive presidents were in pursuit of prohibiting states from controlling centers of strategic power including Asia and Europe, the reason for its involvement in a war with the Soviet Union. However, the paper aims to analyze global geopolitics from a military point of view.
Critical Analysis of Global Geopolitics
Geopolitics as an ideology was prevalent in the early twentieth and late nineteenth century. As an ideology, it primarily focused on acquiring colonies in distinct geographic locations. Such mode of thinking resulted in the emergence of First World War as well as the conflict between the late Victorian Britain and the Third Republic France. The Spanish-American war was also as a consequence of global geopolitics. Besides, the invasion of Philippines and the Spanish-American war was immediately followed by the capture of Panama. All these incidents were justified and triggered by the geopolitical ideology. Moreover, the Japanese militarists made use of the geopolitical ideology to justify and explain their expansionist behavior. However, the Japanese expansion behavior jeopardized the opposing powers geopolitical interests resulting in the emergence of World War II.
From an in-depth analysis of the Cold War, it is evident that the explicit conflicts that emerged were as a result of geopolitical orientation. As a consequence of these conflicts, the Middle East including its oil reserves were to be controlled by the United States. This formed the basis of the Carter Doctrine, Eisenhower Doctrine, and the Truman Doctrine. The 1947 Truman Doctrine primary objective was to oppose incursions upon Turkey and Greece. However, the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine confirmed that the United States was ready to utilize armed forces in helping nations in the Middle East, especially those threatened by global communism. In contrast, the Carter Doctrine of 1980 pointed out that any attempt by external forces to take charge of the Persian Gulf Region was an assault on the United States core interests. For this reason, the United States controlled various parts of Africa because they were endowed with mineral wealth including platinum, cobalt, and copper. Likewise, to control the Pacific Rim, the U.S supported the Vietnam War and Korean War to safeguard its interests.
The United States as the Global Power
Currently, the United States is considered the world power because of its military capability both in the air, at sea, and on land. The military gap between the United States and other countries across the globe is widening at a rapid rate. For i...