The Geopolitics of the Sunni World

The most important countries of the Sunni Muslim World are Turkey, as the Muslim country with the strongest army, Saudi Arabia, as the richest in oil Muslim country, Egypt, as the largest and strongest Arab country, Pakistan, as the only Muslim nuclear power, and Indonesia, as the largest Muslim country in the world, with 250 million inhabitants.

Egypt, Turkey and Russia are the three connections between Europe and Asia (Silk Roads). Egypt’s greatest enemy is Turkey, and Egypt were under Turkish control during the last centuries. Turkey’s greatest enemy is Russia, which is the country that can really challenge Turkey. Saudi Arabia was normally under Turkish control, and emerged as a great Sunni power when her huge oil reserves were discovered in 1938.

Saudi Arabia would like to claim a Silk Road that would lead her to the Mediterranean Sea through Jordan and Israel, but Egypt and Turkey are militarily stronger and would never allow that to happen, unless Saudi Arabia was prepared to pay significant commissions. Saudi Arabia’s greatest enemy is Iran, which is Saudi Arabia’ competitor in the oil markets of Asia. Iran also has a great geographical advantage, because Iran can connect to Europe and Asia through pipelines i.e. through Turkey and Pakistan, while the Saudis cannot do that. Actually they could but it is much easier for the Iranians.

Pakistan is a highly corrupted Islamic country, and its greatest enemy is India. Pakistan and China jointly fight India.

Indonesia’s greatest enemy is China, because China claims most of the South China Sea.

Important countries of the Sunni World are also Libya and Algeria. Since the war between Algeria and France was over, Morocco has been Algeria’s number one enemy. Algeria is in favor of independence of the rich in gas West Sahara, currently controlled by Morocco. The Algerian-Moroccan borders have been closed for many years.

Libya’s number one enemy was France, at least during Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, due to the great French influence in West Africa. Gaddafi thought that West Africa belonged to his sphere of influence and always challenged France. Algeria has stronger economic ties with France and Libya has stronger economic ties with Italy.

--By Rajveer

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