Part 5 of the Russian Natural Gas and Geopolitical Realignment Series
By George McMillan, owner of McMillan Geostrategic Consulting
Overt and Covert Entities, and Strategic Planning
The purpose of this series of articles is twofold: first, to explain the role of energy in geopolitics to energy sector analysts, and second, this process explains the rationale of American Foreign policy in the post 9/11 Global War on Terror (GWOT) era which is pertinent to those Americans who were deployed overseas and are puzzled by the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the pivot to Ukraine.
The premise is that the more one understands the history of post-Mahan ‘sea power versus sea power’ and post-Mackinder ‘sea power versus land power’ geopolitical strategies, the more one will understand the underlying reasons for the continual conflict zones of Eastern Europe and every single area of the post-colonial Eurasian perimeter, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
That includes the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the “seven countries in five years” (Afghanistan plus Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran) that retired General Wesley Clark discussed with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!” and on other shows during his 2007 presidential campaign.
Clark explained the “eight countries in five years” strategy of the Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Talbot, Kristol, and Kagan branch of neoconservatives concluding that there had been a “foreign policy coup” in the US and that such an aggressive foreign policy program needs to be explained and discussed in a democratic forum if the US was indeed a representative Democratic Republic.
Since it is not the place of the more discrete government agencies of any country to disclose their strategic plans, intentions, and counter strategies, it is the domain of academicians, journalists, and private sector analysts to investigate and speculate about the underlying purposes of domestic and foreign policies if the promotion of “Democratic ideals” was the actual goal of American foreign policy.
Two Decades of GWOT