The U.S. will continue to threaten retaliation, including nuclear retaliation to deter aggression against it, and its allies, according to the report. The Pentagon is making it clear that it reserves the right to use the nuclear threat even in the event of conventional attack against its forces, it is pouring cold water over international … Read more
The United States of America was the first modern democracy and the first state erected on the premise that its reason for being was to secure the God-given rights of its citizens. Two hundred and twenty years after the founding of the republic, freedom in America is so firmly rooted as to make one wonder … Read more
So far, the U.S. trade embargo against Iran had been partial, in the sense that the U.S. companies were prevented from marketing Iranian oil directly in the U.S. markets. They were, however, allowed to resell Iranian oil in the world market. In fact, last year, this amounted to buying almost 20 percent Iranian crude oil … Read more
The demands which the U.S. had been making, and which seem to have been met by China, provide in indication of the kind or preventive steps and policing which will be … Read more
The prospects for democracy at the close of the 20th century are perilous. In an increasingly unified world system, it is no longer possible to write about the prospects for democracy except on a world scale. It cannot be a precious entity reserved for the rich First World ghetto of Western Europe and North American. … Read more
Progress towards peace in Bosnia shows in every newly stocked store window, on every traffic filled road in central Bosnia, and in the smiles of every roller skating child on Sarajevo’s once deadly streets. But it is all too shaky, a few arrests of alleged war criminals, local quarrels in Sarajevo and in Mostar, or … Read more
PROBLEMS OF WEALTH, A WEALTH OF PROBLEMS In 1996, Central Asia became more clearly than ever the object of a new form of international rivalry, particularly in the renewed regional contest over Afghanistan. Some analysts referred to this rivalry as a new “Great Game”, harking back to the term made famous by Rudyard Kipling and … Read more
LOCATION, CLIMATE, LANGUAGE, RELIGION, FLAG, CAPITAL The Russian Federation, or Russia (until 25 December 1991 officially known as the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic RSFSR), constituted the major part of the USSR, providing some 76% of its area and some 51 of its population in 1990. It is bounded by Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia … Read more
Democracy is a discussion. Vaclav Havel, Present of the Czech Republic There is an ongoing discussion in post Soviet societies about whether democracy has brought more good or more evil. What makes the discussion fairly hot is people’s firsthand experience with the protracted and severe conflicts that have become manifest as democratization, or “detotalitarization”, unfolds. … Read more
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the newly independent states of Central Asia and there Transcaucasus became a central focus for Russian foreign policy makers. Given these states ties to the Middle East, Moscow now tends to view its policy toward Iran through the lens of Theran’s policies toward Central Asia and the Transcaucasus. … Read more