The Worldwide Resource War is just beginning

by BWK ~ February 6, 2008

China is using its foreign reserves as a piggy bank to nail down resource security going forward. (Hello? It’s called “Resource Security.” Remember that. It’s a Naval War College term, right up there with “influence of seapower.”) Chinalco using Alcoa as a junior partner was brilliant. Alcoa? Stands for, “Aluminum Company of America.” Master-stroke. A rhetorical flourish of the quality of the best of the Super-Bowl ads

Just imagine if CNOOC had approached Union Oil with, say, Anadarko or Apache as a junior partner. Who would have complained? Could there be any more “American” sounding names than Anadarko or Apache? (OK, for the Cleveland Browns fans out there, those are Native American, “Indian” names.) The deal would have happened, and CNOOC would have done an asset-breakup with the partner a month after closing. (”Here’s mine; here’s yours. Pleasure doing business with you.”)

Should we be worried about China acquiring vast stretches of natural resources? Well, some people say that “The Cold War is over.” I say, “Oh really?”

See above, as USAF F-22 Raptor intercepts Russian Tu-95 Bear near Alaska (very near, actually), November 22, 2007. USAF photo courtesy of Aviation Week Magazine. (Note external fuel tank on Raptor for longer on-station time.) Are the 1990s finally over? Are we moving back to the future?

The Resource War is just beginning. Instead of bombers and interceptors playing cat & mouse over the North Atlantic or Pacific (well, we’ll still see those kinds of things), we now have nationally sponsored “investment” arms jockeying for title & control over basic resources and other assets that will form the economic backbone of the “winning” society for the next 100 years. So the question is, which society has a winning game plan for the next 100 years?

Best, BWK