We Cannot Have That Relationship If We

Like So Many Empires Before It, The Soviet Union Eventually Imploded And Fragmented, Falling Victim Not So Much To A Direct Military Defeat As To Disintegration Accelerated By Economic And Social Strains.

Today It Is Infinitely Easier To Kill One Million People Than To Control One Million People.

In Fact, An Islamic Revival - Already Abetted From The Outside Not Only By Iran But Also By Saudi Arabia - Is Likely To Become The Mobilizing Impulse For The Increasingly Pervasive New Nationalisms, Determined To Oppose Any Reintegration Under Russian - And Hence Infidel - Control.

Our World Is Integrated To An Unprecedented Degree, While The Global Political Awakening Is Injecting Into Interstate Relations An Intense Amount Of Tension, Emotion, Even Irrationality, Which Could Cumulatively Produce Circumstances That Preclude An Effective And Genuinely Shared Universal Response To New Global Problems.

Moreover, They [the Central Asian Republics] Are Of Importance From The Standpoint Of Security And Historical Ambitions To At Least Three Of Their Most Immediate And More Powerful Neighbors, Namely Russia, Turkey And Iran, With China Also Signaling An Increasing Political Interest In The Region. But The Eurasian Balkans Are Infinitely More Important As A Potential Economic Prize: An Enormous Concentration Of Natural Gas And Oil Reserves Is Located In The Region, In Addition To Important Minerals, Including Gold.