Word: arcs
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...arc of crisis stretches along the shores of the Indian Ocean, with fragile social and political structures in a region of vital importance to us threatened with fragmentation. The resulting political chaos could well be filled by elements hostile to our values and sympathetic to our adversaries." -Zbigniew Brzezinski...
...southern Africa. In practical terms, however, what Brzezinski is really speaking of are the nations that stretch across the southern flank of the Soviet Union from the Indian subcontinent to Turkey, and southward through the Arabian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa. The center of gravity of this arc is Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer and for more than two decades a citadel of U.S. military and economic strength in the Middle East. Now it appears that the 37-year reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is almost over, ended by months of rising civil unrest...
...conditions that make for instability along the arc vary greatly from country to country, and it would be imprudent to apply the cold war domino theory to the area. "There may be a bunch of dominoes," says a Western diplomat, "but they're not leaning against each other, end on end." Nonetheless, it is also apparent that what happens next in Iran could have an important effect on the whole region. The international rivalry that Rudyard Kipling once described as "the great game" for control of the warm-weather ports and lucrative trade routes between Suez...
...expect more from the Soviets along this arc...
...long-range terms, the most worrisome prospect is the deterioration of U.S. influence in what National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has called "the Arc of Crisis," a vast region of the Middle East and Asia Minor where instability invites Soviet adventurism. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has become increasingly skeptical of America's resolve to safeguard the Arc, and, according to some unconfirmed reports, has opened discreet diplomatic channels to Moscow. There is little chance that so virulent an anti-Communist state as Saudi Arabia would seriously consider any accommodation with the Soviets, but the very fact that...