The Emerging Pattern of Geopolitics.

This talk to a a strategic conference is almost a year old but it is still right on point. Senator McCain has a good grasp of the situation but I fear that Senator Obama does not.


THE EMERGING PATTERN OF GEOPOLITICS by Peter W. Rodman
September 2007


The theme of this conference is especially important. Iraq and Afghanistan, important as they are, do not exhaust the strategic landscape. There is a global strategic environment, which presents many challenges in many different regions of the world that bear close attention in their own right. In fact, that global environment forms the context in which we should be thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the reasons it is so important how well we do in Iraq and Afghanistan is its impact on American credibility—a precious commodity that will affect our success in these other theaters. I have chosen for my topic the phrase “The Emerging Pattern of Geopolitics” because I do see a pattern emerging. For a long time, it was not clear what to call the post-Cold War world. I still do not have a name for it, but we can see already, in my view, two dominantfeatures of the world we are in:

• One is what we call the Global War on Terrorism, but it is really an assault against the West by Islamist extremism, which is a virulent political ideology feeding on centuries of historical and cultural resentments. I would also argue that this ideological challenge is taking on a new geopolitical form, as Iran attempts to make itself the leader of it. Follow the link for the entire article: The Emerging Pattern of Geopolitics.