Arrggghhh...
"Governments don't have friends; they have interests." (IIRC, Disraeli; around 1853?) Great Powers have always--and will always--seek to have influence in areas deemed to be of national interest. In the past it was Spain, France, Great Britain, Russia; now, China, and, I presume that India is ready and waiting.
These interests are competing interests. Kipling spoke of it as "The Great Game" in his book, "Kim".
What changed dramatically in the 20th Century was the cost of projecting power. We went from the days when a few machine guns could devastate Fuzzy Wuzzy at relatively little cost to the present when it takes multi-million-dollar pieces of equipment.
The game is the same. The present interest is oil and the control thereof. Oil is the lifeblood of developed nations. We don't need oil for generating electricity. We can use other fuels for transportation, albeit less efficient or more costly. We will still need as much oil in the future, even with those changes, just because of the fact that half of each barrel of oil goes into other uses--including slinky underwear and computers and cell phones...
"Why We Fight" is an egregious example of teensy-weensy understanding of the world we live in.
Art
