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Before September 11, none of us gave much thought to Central Asia. Soon Baku and Dushanbe may be as familiar to us as Bataan and Iwo Jima, and the Islamic Movement of Turkestan as feared as the Khmer Rouge. Our first stop is a land of vast deserts and the world’s largest inland sea, a land where the thermometer can hit 110°F in July and –40°F in January. It’s been the meeting point of empires, each of which has left its mark, since prehistoric times. What follows is a brief guide to some of the ethnic, religious and political disputes which may explode in the months and years to come. These will be our allies, our enemies, or some ever-shifting combination thereof. These are the first battlegrounds of World War III: |
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