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Penn State Journal of Law International Affairs Volume 3 Issue 2 The 9 Billion Peop le Question: The Challenge of Global Resource Scarcity February 2015 Geopolitics of Resource Scarcity Kent Hughes Butts I N: 2168-7951 Recommended Citation Kent Hughes Butts, Geop olitics of Resource Scarcity, 3 Penn. t. J.L. Intl Aff. 1 (2015). Available at : /jlia/vol3/iss2/3 The Penn State Journal of Law International Aff airs is a joint publication of Penn tate’s chool of Law and chool of International Affairs. Penn State Journal of Law International Affairs 2015 VOLUME 3 NO. 2 GEOPOLITICS OF RESOURCE SCARCITY Kent Hughes Butts, PhD* INTRODUCTION Geopolitics refers to the relationship of geographical settings to political processes.1 The diversity and scale of the geography are important variables in the exercise of political power. Resources vary markedly in occurrence, giving rise to global patterns of trade and creating vulnerability to supply cutoff. National leaders should be aware of the occurrence of strategically important resources within their borders, understand which of these are critically important to sustain human and state security, and develop policies to achieve sufficiency from domestic or international sources. This paper addresses resource geopolitics, offers some examples, and provides concepts for reducing import vulnerability in an era of rising resource-focused policies by Russia and China. I. GEOPOLITICS One of the functions of statecraft is to secure the resources that sustain the nation state. When strategically important resources are not found within state