In 1904 Halford Mackinder became famous for his proposition, advanced at the Royal Geographic Society, that whoever commanded the Eurasian heartland would command the world island. The world island, according to him, consisted of Asia, Europe and Africa. Whoever dominated this would dominate the world. At that time, large parts of the Eurasian heartland fell under the Russian Empire, which he believed to be challenged by the German Empire. Whoever dominated the Eurasian heartland would have access to rich supplies of raw materials in Siberia and Central Asia. This access was a precondition for economic growth and thereby for military might. An interesting aspect of Mackinder's proposition is that there is a clear relationship between the dominance of territory, economic growth and military might. Today, the situation is not so very different. In Mackinder's time, power politics was largely about controlling territory. The major difference now is that the great wars of conquest belong to the past, and territorial disputes are usually about access to raw materials or the demarcation of maritime Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). In other words, countries are not primarily out to conquer territory, although the question of who lawfully owns small islands in maritime regions that are rich in raw materials is certainly decisive for the demarcation of an EEZ. In principle, it is about having access to these supplies.

This guaranteed access plays a decisive role in a country's economic development and therefore its social and political stability. If the unhindered supply of raw materials and energy is threatened, vital interests are put at stake and a great power will be prepared to defend these, by force of arms if needs be. This was the case in 1990 when the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait to gain control of the country's oil supplies. The international community intervened in order to restore Kuwaiti sovereignty and to prevent Iraq from gaining control of the largest part of the world's oil supplies, whereby it would become a powerful player that could hold the rest of the world to ransom.