Introduction to Geopolitics

Fahrenheit 9/11
and its portrayal of the
geopolitical doctrine of President George W. Bush. According to filmmaker Michael
Moore, the war upon Iraq was a matter of capitalist greed. The maintenance of personal
fortunes built upon the global need for oil. Unsurprisingly, the reasons President Bush
gave for going to war are different. They did not rest upon the material needs, and finan-
cial gains, of extracting and selling oil. Rather they rested in the realm of ideals.
According to this interpretation, the war was fought in the name of “freedom” and
securing the privileges of the citizens of the United States in the face of terrorist threat.
Also, the ideals of “liberating” the Iraqi people from tyrannical rule and bestowing them
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with democratic self-rule were cited. As in the Soccer War, contemporary discussions
of war juxtapose two, equally political, interpretations of the causes of war: material
gain and values.
Answering the question headlining this section is clearly beyond my capabilities. But
let me try and provoke an initial approach to the question in a way that provides some
insights into particular conflicts while also placing war within our broader discussion of
geopolitics. Our discussion will focus on two different reasons for fighting wars, specific-
ally the reasons governments use to justify their involvement in conflicts: material
interests and values. These two reasons should not be seen as competing or mutually
exclusive. Instead, they are presented as the two most common themes used to justify