Introduction

Since the dramatic events—the revolutions in Kabul and Teheran, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Gulf War—"Greater Central Asia" has recaptured the imagination of academia. The Soviet leaders must prevent the Islamic resurgence from spreading northward, but their problems with the expanding body of Soviet Muslims, whose numbers are expected to exceed the combined Slavic population of the empire within one hundred years, will likely worsen regardless of their efforts. A modern transport infrastructure, consisting of roads, railways, airfields, canals, pipelines, and electric power grids, has been systematically expanded from Soviet Central Asia into Afghanistan. The steady and systematic preparation of Soviet-trained and indoctrinated cadres could affect capabilities for the long-term development of Afghanistan. In the wake of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which had brought down the strongest Western-supported power in Central Asia, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan revived the century-old Russian imperialist threat to the Indian Ocean through the once-strategic corridors of Central Asia.