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Friday, Jan 18, 2002

game theory

"This is not necessarily the Great Game, Part 2. The incentives for American cooperation with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and the other regional powers far outweigh the incentives for confrontation. A great deal of 20th century Mideast conflict can be explained by American-Soviet rivalry — another great game that brought much misery. There is no need to repeat that in Central Asia and every reason not to. To move away from gamesmanship and toward cooperation, Russia might begin by reconsidering its close relations with its regional customers, Saddam Hussein and the Iranian military. And the United States should use great discretion in establishing its bases in Central Asian nations like Kyrgyzstan. Better to build more joint pipelines and fewer military bases."

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