The lessons of geography appear to be ignored by policymakers in
Washington D.C. these days. The Obama administration is pursuing
tenuous negotiations with Iran regarding its supply of low-enriched
uranium, in the hopes of taking the first step to erase the
longstanding animosity between the two countries. It is also rethinking
its Afghanistan and Pakistan policy to emphasize reconstruction and
economic development. These two strategies are unfortunately
disconnected -- despite the fact that Afghanistan shares a
600-mile-long strategic border with Iran.
In the future, globalization will further weaken the
nation-state. A long transition process toward global government will be, like
the Middle Ages, a time of great insecurity. But Europe's governance structure
will prevail, even in the United
States. It will buy its way to peace and its
model will be copied across the globe.
The conventional wisdom in Washington --
and the core of U.S. President Barack Obama's "Af-Pak" policy, which
he announced in March -- is that Afghanistan is now the central
front in the conflict formerly known as the war on terror. Pakistan is essential too, of course, and
indeed, the thinking goes, you can't have a successful Afghanistan policy without a successful Pakistan
policy. The problem with this conventional wisdom is that it gets the situation
entirely backward: The real fight is in Pakistan,
not Afghanistan,
With a recount announced for the Iranian election, and opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi demanding a fresh election, the political situation in Iran remains on a knife's edge.
We're witnessing the mobilizing power of anti-incumbent forces, particularly youth, who are fed up, and the role of technology in getting voters to the ballot boxes and out on the street.
The final stretch on the road to Yarkand, about 125 miles from China’s border with Pakistan, feels like the middle east. Each village is a collage of single-storey mud-brick homes with turquoise door-gates. People travel by donkey cart or scooter-rickshaw. Men greet each other the Muslim way (palm to the chest and a slight bow); women wear headscarves. In small villages many signs are still in Uighur, the local language. But for how much longer?
