Grand Area

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Grand Area ( "large area") or Grand Area Planning refers to the strategists of the US -designed definition of their global interests, in particular the geographical spread of its influence zone.

Council on Foreign Relations

The concept in question is first based on a memorandum of the same name dated July 24, 1941, i.e. at the time when the Second World War was already underway but the USA was still about to enter the war. This memorandum was drawn up by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and forwarded to President Franklin D. Roosevelt for information.

This memorandum determines that part of the world that the United States wants to rule or dominate economically and militarily in order to be able to appropriate the raw material resources of these areas for its own needs. The outlines of such a plan had already emerged in the 1930s.

Latin America , Europe and all regions of the British Empire , the Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ), China and Japan and the oil-rich Middle East were defined as their own area of ​​interest . So it was also about areas that had been claimed or had long since been occupied by the Axis powers Japan and the German Reich in 1941 . In addition, the option of further expansion was kept open.

In addition, the creation of global financial institutions to stabilize the international monetary system and to encourage investment was outlined - considerations that led to the Bretton Woods system in 1944 .

Policy Planning Study 23

Further description is provided by the Chief Policy Planning Staff in the State Department , George F. Kennan . The top secret Policy Planning Study 23 (PPS / 23) of February 28, 1948 states that the defeated and occupied powers Germany and Japan must be rebuilt as assets of a capitalist world order, which is to be done with the resources of the so-called Third World . In this world order only free trade and the dominance of western civilization should prevail.

Excerpt from the Policy Planning Study, Chapter VII. Far East, page 524:

“We must be very careful when we speak of exercising" leadership "in Asia. We are deceiving ourselves and others when we pretend to have answers to the problems, which agitate many of these Asiatic peoples. Furthermore, we have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3 of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction… In the face of this situation we would be better off to dispense now with a number of the concepts which have underlined our thinking with regard to the Far East. We should dispense with the aspiration to 'be liked' or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brothers' keeper and refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague - and for the Far East - unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better. "

“We have to be very careful when speaking of our 'leadership' in Asia. We are deceiving ourselves and others when we pretend to have a solution to the problems that concern most of these Asian people. We own about 50% of the world's wealth, but only make up 6.3% of its population. This difference is particularly great in the relationship between us and the peoples of Asia. In such a situation, we cannot avoid attracting envy and resentment. Our real task in the foreseeable future is to find a form of relationship that will allow us to maintain these differences in prosperity without seriously compromising our national security. In order to achieve this, we will have to forego all sentimentality and daydreaming; and we will have to concentrate our attention everywhere on our own national projects. We must not pretend that today we can afford the luxury of altruism and world happiness ... [...] We should stop talking about vague - and for the Far East - unrealistic goals such as human rights, raising living standards and democratization. The day is not far off when our actions must be guided by sober thinking about power. The less we are then hindered by idealistic slogans, the better. "

- George Kennan : chief planner in the US State Department, February 1948

Policy Planning Study 23 is closely related to the containment policy developed by Kennan and the domino theory derived from it .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1948, VOLUME I

literature

  • Princeton Studies in International History and Politics: George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950 , 1993, ISBN 0-691-02483-9
  • Noam Chomsky : Language and Politics , 2004, ISBN 1-902-59382-0 , page 503 f.
  • Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.): Black Book Globalization . Munich 2004. ISBN 3-442-15263-1
  • Michael Wala: The Council on Foreign Relations and American foreign policy in the early Cold War . Berghahn Books, Providence, RI 1994, ISBN 1-571-81003-X .
  • A. Kai-Uwe Lange, George Frost Kennan and the Cold War. An analysis of Kennan's variant of the containment policy , Lit-Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-825-85436-1