Practicing Radical Geopolitics: Logics of Power and the Iranian Nuclear 'Crisis'

摘要

The theory of "radical geopolitics" is directly concerned with identifying the roots of U.S. foreign policy froma critical political economic perspective, seeking to determine the relative importance of political factors andeconomic forces in shaping foreign policy. It builds on Harvey's (2003) conceptualization of two logics of powerand deploys a "geopolitical logic" and a "geoeconomic logic" to interpret political events. The former logicarises out of capitalism's tendency to expand geographically and the latter out of officials of statecraft's needto maintain their state's credibility internationally. Post-World War II U.S. foreign policy has largely followedthe geoeconomic logic but has also been oriented (in sometimes divergent directions) by the geopolitical logic.A discussion of the Iranian nuclear "crisis" illustrates the radical geopolitics approach using national securitydocuments outlining U.S. policy toward the Middle East and Iran, along with detailed interviews with seniordiplomats from Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the EuropeanUnion. The Iranian crisis is a product of (1) American interest in the control of Iranian energy resources (ageoeconomic logic); and (2) American officials' need to reaffirm U.S. credibility in the face of Iranian defiance ofU.S. hegemony in the Middle East (a geopolitical logic).