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Dr. Barış Adıbelli – Güney Kafkasya’da Güvenlik Konferansı Konuşması
The Construction of American Eurasia
In 1904, the British geopolitician Mackinder, in his speech at the Royal Geographical Society, stated that controlling Eurasia would mean controlling the world. In a sense, Mackinder was advising Britain to give importance to land dominance; however, Britain, being a maritime empire, believed that whoever controlled the seas would control the world and saw that a world empire based on land dominance was not possible. Therefore, Mackinder’s views did not gain much traction in Britain. However, these views resonated greatly in the New World, that is, in the United States. The United States adapted Mackinder’s views according to its own national interests. American geopoliticians such as George Kennan, Nicholas Spykman, and Zbigniew Brzezinski made Eurasia the number one target of the United States. So much so that the Cold War period was not only a period of ideological competition but also a period of geopolitical competition, and one of the main objectives of the United States was to seize the geography dominated by the Soviet Union. From the beginning of the 20th century to the present, the United States has been pursuing this geography in order to build its own Eurasian geopolitics.
In particular, the book titled The Grand Chessboard, written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, was not only a manifesto for U.S. Eurasian policy but also a roadmap for the United States; even a handbook.
In his book, Brzezinski says the following about Eurasia:
Eurasia is the main geopolitical prize for the United States. For 500 years, world affairs were determined by Eurasian powers and peoples who fought each other for regional dominance and sought global power. Now a non-Eurasian power is leading in Eurasia, and America’s global primacy depends directly on how long and how effectively its dominance on the Eurasian continent is sustained…
Eurasia is the largest continent on Earth and is geopolitically an axis. A power that dominates Eurasia can control two of the world’s most advanced and economically productive three regions. Approximately 75% of the world’s population lives in Eurasia, and most of the world’s physical wealth, both in terms of economic enterprise and underground resources, is located there. Eurasia accounts for 60% of the world’s GNP and three-quarters of known energy resources. Eurasia is also the place where the world’s most politically ambitious and dynamic states are located.
After the United States, the six largest economies and the six largest arms purchasers are located in Eurasia. Five of the world’s nuclear powers are in Eurasia. The two most populous states in the world, China and India, both aspiring to regional hegemony and global influence, are in Eurasia. All potential political or economic challengers to American primacy are in Eurasia. In summary, the power of Eurasia largely overshadows the power of the United States. However, Eurasia is too large to form a politically unified entity compared to America. Eurasia is a chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy is played.
As can be seen, today the chessboard on which the game of global hegemony is played is the geography of Eurasia. The United States has waited for more than a century to capture this geography. Although it has made moves from time to time, it has not succeeded. The major obstacle in front of the United States in controlling Eurasia is the Middle East and Israel. Israel has, each time, been a burden for the United States.
For the construction of American Eurasia, two maritime basins are of vital importance. The United States must necessarily maintain a presence in these basins: the first is the Black Sea basin, and the second is the Caspian Sea basin. With Biden, the struggle of the United States to exist in Eurasia has restarted. The war in Ukraine should be evaluated in this context. The United States wanted to bring Ukraine into NATO solely and exclusively because of the Crimean Peninsula. Because whoever controls Crimea controls the Black Sea. Russia, sensing the plans of the United States, acted quickly and took control of Crimea. Having missed the opportunity to establish a NATO base in Crimea, the United States has also lost its motivation to include Ukraine in NATO. Because a Ukraine without Crimea would not be of much use to NATO and especially to the United States.
In addition, the 21st century will be the century of corridors. The corridors through which energy, goods, and services are transported are emerging as the main determining geopolitical elements of this century. In particular, the countries and geographies through which these corridors pass have become even more strategically important. So much so that not only the countries producing oil and natural gas, but also the countries through which the corridors carrying oil and natural gas to world markets pass have become important; indeed, the countries transporting energy have become more strategically valuable than those producing it. Because as long as what you produce cannot be delivered to world markets, these resources will have no value for the national economy.
In the region, the main objective of the United States’ war policy toward Iran is to seize all of Eurasia’s energy resources, primarily Iran’s energy resources. The United States seeks to control the energy going to China as well as the energy that will go from Central Asia and the Caspian to the European Union, because the weakening global hegemony of the United States necessitates finding new instruments to control the world. In this context, Eurasian energy resources will both enable control over China and the EU, and at the same time create a suitable ground to somehow disrupt the great Eurasian partnership between China and Russia. In addition, the C5+1 meetings initiated during the Biden period toward the Central Asian republics that are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have also been continued by Trump. In particular, it is noteworthy that Trump has established very close relations with Kazakhstan and Pakistan. Furthermore, the United States has signed strategic partnership agreements with Armenia and Azerbaijan. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has visited these two countries.
