The Power of Stuff: The Geopolitics of Raw Materials Since 1900

5 credits · Undergraduate

Competition over raw materials - foodstuffs, ores, fuels - is a foundational problem of international relations. The class surveys how the quest for raw materials has shaped interstate conflict and cooperation throughout the twentieth century: from Britain's free-trade empire, to the German and Japanese blocs in the age of total war, to the American-led order after 1945, to the Soviet Union and its satellites, to China's bid to control supply chains in our own day. We will examine the strategic significance of raw materials for each of these great powers, and ask what history can teach about the geoeconomic conflicts of our age.