Gorbacheve's Central Asian Time Bomb Is Ticking

Publication Date: September 1990

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Leon Aron

Research Area: International relations

Keywords: Asia and the Pacific

Type: Report

Abstract:

Central Asia badly needs Western attention and help. Should the region’s forces of religious fanaticism and authoritarianism prevail, the results could be very destabilizing for the Middle East and American interests there. Islamic fundamentalist states, for example, hostile to the West and close to either Iran or Iraq, could
support anti-American terrorists or threaten Pakistan and other Muslim states friendly to the U.S. It is in America’s interests to prevent a post-Soviet Central Asia from becoming yet another destabilizing factor in the Middle East.