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THE CHANGING MIDDLE EAST: With the break-up of the Soviet Union and growing links between the traditional Middle East and the Caucasus as well as Central and South Asia, a new strategic map of the region is emerging that has far-reaching implications for the United States and other major powers and interests in the region.

…Findings from this work lead us to argue that increasing demand for Persian Gulf and Caspian Basin energy, especially from strong Asian economies, ensures that the Middle East remains a global strategic prize as well as a source of continued rivalry. At the same time, radical changes in conventional military technology and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combined with megaterrorism, present ominous possibilities for future warfare. The nexus of oil resources and nuclear proliferation is crucial here. So, too, are emerging demographics (the proximity of South Asias huge populations to the Persian Gulf), the potential for conflict over scarce water resources, and the political rivalries which focus on alternative oil and gas pipeline routes out of Central Asia.

On the positive side, a cooperative, prosperous, and venturesome future is possible which resembles that advanced by former Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres. This could include a host of possible cooperative economic projects, such as canals, highways, water pipelines and dams, oil and gas pipelines, communications grids, and regional airports. Much of the modernization could be underwritten by oil and gas revenues, which are predicted to increase substantially in the wake of projected global shortages. This could be paralleled by the spread of democracy to allow the region to become part of a «zone of peace» — an appellation now applied only to North America, Europe, East Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.

…Between the nether poles of optimism and pessimism is the certainty that the strategic importance of the greater Middle East will continue to hold center stage in world politics, even as its traditional configurations and alignments change».

Весь 1997 год шли очень серьезные обсуждения этой проблемы, а в августе того же года на одном из брифингов после доклада представителя ЦРУ, который поделился с собравшимися итогами деятельности созданного в ЦРУ в начале 1990-х годов специального подразделения для наблюдения за развитием событий в Каспийском регионе (Гриняев С. Сетевая война по-американски. Она развивает теорию «мятежевойны», выдвинутую русским ученым-эмигрантом // Независимое военное обозрение. 15 февраля 2002), тогдашний госсекретарь США Мадлен Олбрайт заявила, что «одной из самых важных задач будет работа над формированием будущего этого региона».