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The U.S. should de-link its concerns about backsliding Russian democracy with other areas of security and economic cooperation with Russia. The U.S. must work closely with the Russians on, for example, halting nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, but these goals should not prevent the U.S. government from promoting democracy and civil society and defending human and civil rights.
Ahmadinejad's threat to external security and internal freedoms is bringing forth an opposition coalition that sees more clearly the dangers of confrontation with the West. A nimble U.S. policy, one that plots a strategy beyond the next Security Council vote, can help these forces inside Iran succeed.
As voters in Azerbaijan go to the polls, they will participate in an election whose conduct will serve as a referendum on U.S. efforts to spread democracy. A free and fair election will signal that Islam, oil and democracy can coexist. A tainted vote will affirm that those elements don't mix well, and show that the West is indifferent to democracy when oil and military bases are at stake.
Early in his tenure as general secretary of the Soviet Communist party, Mikhail Gorbachev took a radical first step toward reversing decades of Soviet isolation from the outside world with his quest for a "common European home."
For the past decade Central Asia has been cast as the site of a new "great game," with the United States vying for influence with Russia and China.
The U.S. faces potential risks from the prospects of greater destabilization within Russia, from the possible risks of regime collapse in Uzbekistan and Central Asia more generally, and from the chance that the frozen conflicts in the south Caucasus could “thaw.”