Word: buffers
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...decades, as the baby boomers turn geriatric and the rest of society has to bear the enormous burden of caring for them in what is likely to be an era of dwindling resources. At that point, the mutual understanding gained from present-day initiatives may provide a crucial buffer to bitter generational conflicts...
...slice of southern Finland; by making a deal with the Germans, he once again annexed the Baltic states. Then, after repelling the Nazi invasion, he established the Red Army in occupied East Germany in 1945, moved the Polish frontiers some 200 miles to the West and established a buffer zone of Communist satellites all across Central Europe. When China too went Communist in 1949, Stalin could claim suzerainty over the largest empire since that of the Mongols. And though nobody realized it then, it was just as doomed...
...foundation of the old European order was the formal creation of two Germanys in 1949 and the decision by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer a few years later to tether West Germany to the Atlantic Alliance. For the Soviet Union, which subjugated East Germany as a satellite and buffer, this meant that any war with the West would occur on German rather than Russian soil. For the other Europeans, it meant a respite from the problem of German militarism. For the U.S., it made possible the creation of a strong NATO alliance to lead the struggle for containing the Soviets...
...Russians, tempered by centuries of land invasions, national security has long been defined as the control of territory and the subjugation of neighbors. Moscow's desire for a protective buffer, combined with a thousand- year legacy of expansionism and a 20th century overlay of missionary Marxism, was what prompted Stalin to leave his army in Eastern Europe after World War II and impose puppet regimes in the nations he had liberated...
There is not much the watching world can do to stop it. Bitterly stung by previous attempts to serve as a buffer among Lebanon's feuding militias, Europe and the U.S. steered clear of direct intervention, appealing instead for a campaign of international pressure to quiet the guns. The U.N. Security Council urged an immediate cease-fire. Pope John Paul II blamed Damascus for "genocide." But the pleas had little impact on a situation that is governed by passion and irrationality. Unless a cease-fire can be brokered quickly, Syria and its allies might risk an all out assault...