The United States has been at war for the most part of the twentieth century, and almost entirely all of the twenty first. Although US policy makers rarely state it, oil is a major precipitator of these wars, as a large number of them have been fought around areas with the highest quantities of oil deposits. Whether the US needs to get into a war every time oil is the issue, is however a very contentious point.
Those in support of the US going to war for oil claim that areas with large quantities of oil deposit, mostly within the Middle East, are a major source of geostrategic concern for the US, and should thus not be left unguarded (Khalilzad et al., 1998). This line of argument contends that the United States, being the supreme power, has the obligation to ensure such areas are kept from imbalance and despotic regimes. The argument is also in line with the one forwarded by Rosato and Schuessler (2011) in their realist foreign policy theory. According to this theory, great dangers lie in a state such as the US portraying weakness, and thus from a realist point of view, the country would need to balance against other big powers, and against antagonistic minor powers (Rosato and Schuessler, 2011), such as was the case with Iraq.
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Those against these viewpoints state that the continued use of military force just prolongs war, and yet war does not translate to security (Jones, 2012). Additionally, Henderson (1990) highlights the paradox of going to war for oil, indicating that such wars end up costing America twice as much. Indeed, this author finds these two arguments to be better. The United States does not need to go to war on the basis of oil every time. The use of military might over the decades has cost the country a lot both financially and in terms of its soldiers. In addition, there are alternative measures of dealing with oil rich regimes that threaten the security of the country without having to send thousands of troops into war.
References
Henderson, D. R. (1990). Do we need to go to war for oil? . Cato Institute.
Jones, T. C. (2012). America, oil, and war in the Middle East. Journal of American
History , 99 (1), 208-218.
Khalilzad, Z., Lesser, I. O., United States., & Project Air Force (U.S.). (1998). Sources of
conflict in the 21st century: Regional futures and U.S. strategy . Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Rosato, S., & Schuessler, J. (2011). A realist foreign policy for the United States. Perspectives
on Politics , 9 (4), 803-819.
