R esource G eopolitics Resource geopolitics is all about who gets what, when, where and how. Resources have provided some of the key means and motives of global European power expansion. They have also been the focus of inter- state rivalry. Western geopolitical thinking about resources has been dominated by the relationship of trade, war and power, at the core of which were overseas resources and maritime navigation.
Since sea power itself rested on access to timber, naval timber supply became a key priority for major European powers from the 17th century onwards. The critical importance of ensuring uninterrupted supply of strategic resources, in particular oil, was well established both during the First World War and the Second World War. Throughout the Cold War the industrialised countries of the North adopted a number of methods to ensure a steady flow of resources. These included the An entire community erupted in protests against a proposed open-cast coal mine project in Phulbari town, in the North-West district of Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
Here several dozen women, one with her infant child, are chanting slogans against the proposed coal mine project in .