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CONTENTSIntroduction: Superpower Politics1. Hegemony of a New Type- The Short Road to Global Supremacy- The First Global Power- The American Global System2. The Eurasian Chessboard- Geopolitics and Geostrategy- Geostrategic Players and Geopolitical Pivots- Critical Choices and Potential Challenges3. The Democratic Bridgehead- Grandeur and Redemption- America's Central Objective- Europe's Historic Timetable4. The Ulack Hole- Russia's New Geopolitical Setting- Geostrategic Phantasmagoria- The Dilemma of the One Alternative5. The Eurasian Balkans- The Ethnic Cauldron- The Multiple Contest- Neither Dominion Nor Exclusion6. The Far Eastern Anchor- China: Not Global but Regional- Japan: Not Regional but International- America's Geostrategic Adjustment7. Conclusion- A Geostrategy for Eurasia- A Trans-Eurasian Security System- Beyond the Last Global SuperpowerMAPS- The Sino-Soviet Bloc and Three Central StrategicFronts- The Roman Empire at Its Height- The Manchu Empire at Its Height- Approximate Scope of Mongol Imperial Control,1280- European Global Supremacy, 1900- British Paramountcy, 1860-1914- American Global Supremacy- The World's Geopolitically Central Continent andIts Vital Peripheries- The Eurasian Chessboard- The Global Zone of Percolating Violence- France's and Germany's Geopolitical Orbits of Special Interest- Is This Really "Europe"?- Beyond 2010: The Critical Core of Europe'sSecurity- Loss of Ideological Control and ImperialRetrenchment- Russian Military Bases in the Former Soviet Space- The Eurasian Balkans- Major Ethnic Groups in Central Asia- The Turkic Ethnolinguistic Zone- The Competitive Interests of Russia, Turkey, andIran- Caspian-Mediterranean Oil Export Pipelines- Boundary and Territorial Disputes in East Asia- Potential Scope of China's Sphere of Influence andCollision Points- Overlap Between a Greater China and anAmerican-Japanese Anti-China CoalitionLIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES- The Continents: Area- The Continents: Population- The Continents: GNP- European Organizations- EU Membership: Application to Accession- Demographic Data for the Eurasian Balkans- Asian Armed Forces
 
INTRODUCTION
 
Superpower Politics
 EVER SINCE THE CONTINENTS started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia hasbeen the center of world power. In different ways, at different times, the peoples inhabiting Eurasia—thoughmostly those from its Western European periphery—penetrated and dominated the world's other regions asindividual Eurasian states attained the special status and enjoyed the privileges of being the world's premierpowers.The last decade of the twentieth century has witnessed a tectonic shift in world affairs. For the first time ever,a non-Eurasian power has emerged not only as the key arbiter of Eurasian power relations but also as theworld's paramount power. The defeat and collapse of the Soviet Union was the final step in the rapidascendance of a Western Hemisphere power, the United States, as the sole and, indeed, the first truly globalpower.Eurasia, however, retains its geopolitical importance. Not only is its western periphery—Europe—still thelocation of much of the world's political and economic power, but its eastern region— Asia—has lately becomea vital center of economic growth and rising political influence. Hence, the issue of how a globally engagedAmerica copes with the complex Eurasian power relationships— and particularly whether it prevents theemergence of a dominant and antagonistic Eurasian power—remains central to America's capacity to exerciseglobal primacy.It follows that—in addition to cultivating the various novel dimensions of power (technology,communications, information, as well as trade and finance)—American foreign policy must remain concernedwith the geopolitical dimension and must employ its influence in Eurasia in a manner that creates a stablecontinental equilibrium, with the United States as the political arbiter.Eurasia is thus the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played, and thatstruggle involves geostrategy—the strategic management of geopolitical interests. It is noteworthy that asrecently as 1940 two aspirants to global power, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, agreed explicitly (in the secretnegotiations of November of that year) that America should be excluded from Eurasia. Each realized that theinjection of American power into Eurasia would preclude his ambitions regarding global domination. Eachshared the assumption that Eurasia is the center of the world and that he who controls Eurasia controls theworld. A half century later, the issue has been redefined: will America's primacy in Eurasia endure, and to whatends might it be applied?The ultimate objective of American policy should be benign and visionary: to shape a truly cooperative globalcommunity, in keeping with long-range trends and with the fundamental interests of humankind. But in themeantime, it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore thepurpose of this book.Zbigniew BrzezinskiWashington, D.C.April 1997
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