Afghanistan is located at the cross-roads of many civilizations. It is the gateway to India as well as to Central Asia. It shares borders with Pakistan, Iran, and the Central Asian Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan-a volatile mix of nations in a troubled corner of the world. Historically, the country with the most interest in the region is Russia, which views Central Asia as its back yard, and the nations located within it-stepping stones-to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea. In pursuit of that ambition, Russia over the centuries has gradually expanded its realm by conquering the vast lands of the Caucasus and Muslim Central Asia, eventually pausing at the northern borders of the Indian sub-continent and Afghanistan. Seven years after Afghanistan's first-ever Presidential election, the increasingly besieged Government of Hamid Karzai has virtually lost credibility at home and abroad. Al Qaeda has found a new friend in the region-the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP)-which has offered them a safe haven in the tribal belt of the country. The government of Pakistan beset by one political crisis after another and in the aftermath of the killing of Osama Bin Laden at Abbottabad, is on the defensive.
