The US Invasion of Iraq: The Military Side of Globalization?
by Stephen Zunes, professor of Politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.

Skeptics of claims that the United States invaded Iraq for its oil correctly observe that the United States is less dependent on Persian Gulf oil than European or East Asian countries. However, controlling Iraq which is the largest Arab country in the Gulf region, contains the world’s second largest oil reserves, and borders three of the world’s five largest oil producers would give the United States enormous leverage. In the coming decades, in the event of a trade war with the European Union or a military rivalry with an ascendant China, having effective control over Persian Gulf oil would give the United States enormous leverage.

The invasion of Iraq, then, may represent not just a frightening repudiation of the post-World War II international system embodied in the United Nations Charter, but a return to 19th century great power politics of imperial conquest to control key economic resources.

Full story here.