The radical geopolitics of US foreign policy: Geopolitical and geoeconomic logics of power Julien Mercille * School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland Abstract This article presents a version of geopolitics termed ‘‘radical geopolitics,’’ which is critical, political economic, and concerned with investigating the ‘‘why’’ (the causes) of policy and political events, without neglecting the ‘‘how’’ (theway they unfold). In particular, it examines the relative importance of the geo- political and geoeconomic factors that drive policy. It seeks to address questions which have been ne- glected by current approaches in geopolitics, a number of which fail to incorporate political economy or to identify the fundamental reasons behind policy. Inspired by revisionist Cold War historiography, it modifies and reformulates David Harvey’s logics of power into a ‘‘geoeconomic logic’’ and a ‘‘geopo- litical logic’’ through which postwar American foreign policy may be interpreted. The former logic arises out of capitalism’s tendency to expand geographically and the latter out of politicians’ need to maintain credibility internationally as well as from pressures generated by domestic public opinion. A discussion of the Vietnam War illustrates the approach and criticizes Harvey’s account of postwar American foreign pol- icy, which he claims is the product of political and economic forces that sometimes display ‘‘outright antagonism.’’ On the contrary, it is advanced that their oppositions are tactical, but not fundamental, and that it is mostly the geoeconomic logic that has driven postwar American foreign policy. The conclu- sion illustrates the relevance of a radical geopolitics approach to post-Cold War events through a discussion of the current Iranian crisis. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Radical geopolitics; Critical geopolitics; Geoeconomics; Logics of power; Vietnam War * Tel.: þ353 085 168 1182. E-mail address: Julien.mercille@ucd.ie 0962-6298/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2008.06.002 Political Geography 27 (2008) 570e586 www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo