Brief Reflections On Geopolitics

Geopolitics is a science that, in my opinion, is not important but is indispensable because it is the foundation of everything, and it is certain that those who are currently involved in politics understand it well.

While I was still at university, I had started teaching and found great joy in sharing my knowledge with my students. At the time, I was only teaching Spanish.

Later, back home after I had graduated, I was asked to lead a course on Geopolitics. I was thoroughly prepared; I started with the basics and then wanted to cover all the shifts before, during, and after the wars, convinced that simply seeing the changing map would amaze my students at how much the world had transformed over the last century.

Unfortunately, I ran into a more fundamental issue: geography. Very few students, and we are talking about a university setting, actually knew where different places were located. Although it seems absurd in hindsight, it's still true today. And my class became a really boring subject, and after finishing the course, I quit.

I wanted to talk about how Geopolitics studies geographical factors—such as location, size, climate, natural resources, and topography and is the basis of influence in international politics, state power, and foreign policy.

Anyone who has resources: land, sea, raw materials, people etc., could have more power and that is why, who knows better what is where, of course, is looking to have it.

I get excited when I talk about it, but at the same time, I'm getting sad because I'm still teaching other subjects, but when I ask my students about geography they really don't know about it.

But here is a big problem. If we think that the components of geopolitics are:

• Geography: The physical environment, borders, and spatial distribution of resources.
• Power: How states acquire, maintain, and project power across regions.
• Foreign Policy: How governments interact with each other based on their geographic advantages or vulnerabilities.

In this regard, it is obvious that when we hear about events in a distant country, since the average citizen’s geographical knowledge rarely extends beyond their own borders, we tend to assume it does not affect us. However, have you noticed that US geopolitics has become increasingly aggressive? While the US has always created instability to its own advantage, using policies that mask its true actions, under Trump, there are no longer any half-measures or attempts to frame its conduct as a mission to save the world; instead, he speaks openly about profit, not just for his own country, but for allies and for a lobby that could be described as his favorites.

Do we really want to believe that it is fostering a government that stands for freedom? It needs Europe but wants it subservient, and that is exactly what it is doing; it is using Ukraine. It created greater instability in Venezuela, and surely, now that elections are approaching, it will have a hand in things there too. And, of course, how could we forget the Strait of Hormuz, through which oil bound for China and Europe passes? Sure, it is "helping" us by selling us gas and driving up oil prices while it works to gain total control over Venezuela's oil; if I look at the plan objectively, it actually makes perfect sense.

But Greenland is not merely a whim, as the media portrays it; it is a truly vital strategic asset for the United States to gain proximity to Europe.

I could spend all day describing how U.S. policy has been rooted in geopolitics since time immemorial, but I would risk becoming tedious, or even scaring you off, just as happened with my very first geopolitics students.

Besides, I want my dear reader to investigate the matter and use the tools currently available to form their own judgment. We must wake up from the fantasy that nations act to save peoples. It always comes down to profits, and profits are generated through weapons and fuel; while raw materials certainly play a significant role, as long as energy remains tied to fuel consumption and trapped in that same cycle, we will never escape this crisis.

And finally, I ask myself: how can I understand what is happening in the world if I haven't the faintest idea where things are, or what is located where?....