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Politics and the Turkish military
As NATO prepares to expand into Eastern Europe, the military of one its longest-standing members, Turkey, is openly at odds with the country’s democratically elected government. Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, under pressure from his generals for months, has been forced to concede political power. The military’s successful challenge to civilian authority, in keeping with Turkey’s praetorian traditions, could have dangerous consequences. The very threat that it now struggles against – radical Islam – could deepen its hold on Turkish society as a result of the armed forces’ challenge to the political order.
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Central Asia's narcotics industry |
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Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, several of the Central Asian successor republics – Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – have rapidly emerged as primary drug suppliers both for Russia and for Western Europe. In a pattern all too familiar elsewhere, the rapid growth of a narcotics industry has undermined local governments and economies which show little sign of being able to halt the spreading affliction.
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The politics of Islam in South-east Asia |
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The Islamic United Development Party’s strong showing in the 29 May 1997 Indonesian general elections underlines a growing Islamic political activism in both Indonesia and neighbouring Malaysia. This has occurred partly as a reaction to the extraordinary pace of economic development in these countries, and to a certain extent as a response to previous government attempts to separate politics from Islam. In both countries, rising Islamic politics looks likely to coincide with succession struggles. New leaders may thus have to appear more Islamic at the cost of upsetting racial and religious minorities.
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Modernising the US military |
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The US Department of Defense’s first Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) charts a firmly conservative course. The QDR, released on 19 May 1997, adheres to the tenet that US forces must be capable of fighting two major regional wars simultaneously. Radical changes needed to accommodate the costs of the emerging revolution in military affairs (RMA) have not been implemented. Even proposed infrastructure cuts will prove difficult to carry out because of Congressional opposition. More drastic adjustments to the defence budget needed to modernise US forces have also been postponed.
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The International Space Station |
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The world’s most ambitious multilateral endeavour in outer space, the International Space Station – a symbol of burgeoning US–Russian cooperation in the early 1990s – is running into difficulties. The problems result primarily from Russia’s failure to meet production deadlines and the mounting funding problems it now faces. While an International Space Station without Russia is technically feasible, Moscow’s withdrawal would be a serious setback for US–Russian relations and could risk unravelling the entire project.
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