Control over the extraction, refining, export, and applied manufacturing of power natural resources will become a key strategic goal for the U.S.—not only for maintaining a globally competitive edge but also for ensuring Great Power status in an increasingly multipolar world.
In December 2010, the Asahi Shimbun published a remarkable roadmap laying out the future trajectory of Chinese maritime expansion. In its analysis, the Shimbun outlined a geographically contingent thesis of Chinese geopolitical strategy—one on which the scholar Tetsuo Kotani elaborated further in a 2019 academic paper. Both publications argue that Chinese maritime access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans is effectively constrained through a series of islands and straits in the First Island Chain. These potential chokepoints constitute the “Nine Gates” through which Chinese maritime commerce and sea power must flow.
“Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia [and] who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.”