The Kurds wanted a federalist constitution giving them, and the Shia Muslims in the
south of the country, greater autonomy, but this was being resisted by the minority
Sunni Muslims in the central region. The Sunnis saw federalism as a probable step
toward the disintegration of Iraq, and their consequent exclusion from oil revenues.
Iraq’s oil is located in the north and south of the country.
The agency of the Kurds in
their attempt to create a Kurdistan focuses on one geopolitical structure, the state, in a
way that is both facilitated by, and has an impact upon, the geopolitical structure of
world leadership.
By emphasizing how, on the one hand, Chinese agency is based upon a desire for
economic growth and growing participation
in world trade on the one hand, and increas-
ing military strength on the other the complexity, or multiple motivations, of geopolitical
agency is evident. The agency of the Kurds illustrates that identity is mobilized
within a suite or hierarchy of structures, and the intended implications toward one
set of structures may have unintended consequences on other,
non-targeted, structures.
In other words, messiness and structures go hand in hand.
Conclusion and prologue
A book such as this has no definitive conclusion. The book’s task is to let the reader
initiate inquiry into geopolitics and not to provide things that are “known.” The case
studies are included to provide background to what have proved to be persistent conflicts
that could intensify and expand. Knowledge of these actual conflicts is necessary to
understand contemporary geopolitics in two senses: the basic “what is happening/
where is Chechnya?” sense and as a way to exemplify the manner in which geopolitical
structures and agents interact. In the first sense, the case studies provide a stepping-
stone toward a knowledge that will steadily expand as you continue to explore and
engage current affairs.
In the second sense, the case studies are my attempt to talk you
through some actual conflicts with reference to the framework of structures and agents—
they are an exercise that I hope will facilitate your ability to analyze future geopolitical
situations.
If I have one goal with this book it is to make you informed and active participants
in geopolitics. In the most everyday sense, I hope that working through this book allows
you to critique what you see and hear in the media. When an “expert” is put in front of
the cameras or framed on the opinion pages do not be in awe of them, but use the
perspective and knowledge you have gained form this book
to question their assump-
tions, the way they approach the conflict and so limit the questions that are asked, wonder
what someone from another national, gender, class, racial, or religious political perspec-
tive would say instead. To do this, the first thing is to tease out
all
the geopolitical
structures and agents that are involved in the conflict and, hence, be aware of what the
expert is
not
discussing. The next step is to construct a fuller
picture than the expert
will deliver by integrating the role of the excluded agents and structures.
My other intention for writing this book is to act as a guide to participating in
geopolitics, but I am aware that this is a pretentious claim, so please let me qualify the
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M E S S Y G E O P O L I T I C S
211
statement. I hope that one of the lessons from this book is clear: we are all geopoliticians,
we participate on a daily basis. We recreate our own national and state structures by
simple acts of reading a “national” newspaper that is organized to talk about “them” in
the international section as opposed to “us” in the politics, sports, and weather sections
(Billig, 1995). We carry around images of other countries and conflicts that are based
upon popular
representations of geopolitics, which in turn influence our approval of or
opposition to foreign policy. Being aware of the structures of global interstate inter-
action, and nationalism, may, at the very least, allow for more reflection when one is
asked to act in the name of the “common sense” that such structures inspire—a common
sense that feminists will be eager to point out revolves around hierarchy, difference, and
violent competition. What are the structures and notions of “normal”
behavior under-
lying
Dulce et Decorum Est pro Patria Mori
?
For many, participation in geopolitics is much more than the passive reconstruction
of structures that are remote and somewhat intangible. Career paths may well lead to
direct involvement: teaching in the United States I am responsible for the education of
many young adults who have already begun serving in the armed forces or wish
to pursue careers in intelligence agencies or as part of the Department of Homeland
Security. For many of the current generation of university students, political awareness
was initiated on September 11, 2001. Their sense of geopolitics
is very much molded
by the language of the War on Terrorism.
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