ABSTRACT
If, as it is often said, war is God’s way to teach Americans about geography, then apparently 9/11 was the beginning of His lesson on Central Asia. Unbeknownst to most of the American public, Washington had already established relations with these new states and had also identified a number of interests in the region, from oil to economic reform to democracy. The terrorist attacks brought the international spotlight to Afghanistan and its neighbors, and introduced many people to these formerly unknown, remote “stans.” News about the region’s tyrannical leaders, disputes over oil pipelines, and Islamic fundamentalists moved Central Asia from the back pages to the front.
