The New Great Game

"The 'great game' of the 19th and early 20th centuries involved Britain's attempt to keep other great powers from establishing a foothold in Central Asia that could threaten Britain's interest in India. The new 'great game' involves players such as Iran, Turkey, Russia, and the United States vying for influence over the Caspian region and its oil supplies. For the United States and European countries, Caspian oil presents an opportunity to tap a source of oil outside the often turbulent Middle East. The three main oil producing Caspian countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) are landlocked and rely on neighboring countries for access to western markets through pipelines. This adds another aspect to the competition for economic and political dominance of the area. The actors are not only concerned with oil and gas production but also with the pipelines that deliver those resources to market."
Ghassan Abdallah

Remember the map:
http://randomroving.blogspot.com/2010/04/important-map.html

The Status of Our British Cousins

Justice Litle provides a status report on our British compadres. Will the peeling onion devour Gordon Brown?

"We’ll start with Britain - not an adopter of the euro, but a member of the EU (European Union) nonetheless. Britain has been hurled into political chaos, thanks to an unholy combo of deep financial crisis, explosive Labour Party scandals, and the hapless lame-duck status of embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Cabinet Ministers are resigning left and right in protest as Brown’s popularity plummets, calling for the PM to step down. Election results tallied this week showed the Labour Party (Brown’s party) putting in its worst showing since 1918."

"Philip Stevens, chief political commentator for the Financial Times, sees an ominous chain of events now set in motion. “Everyone thought the [election] results would be bad,” Stephens reports. “But these [results] are calamitous... the Prime Minister was prepared, if you like, for very bad results. He’s now got to grapple with absolutely terrible results.”

"If the Brown government fails, Britain will be left rudderless in the midst of the worst fiscal storm in decades. In a worst-case scenario where bad events lead to worse decisions, opines Stephens, the domino chain could even lead to a British exit from the EU."

"This outbreak of chaos is awful and unsettling for the British economy - and by extension awful and unsettling for Europe. As of this writing, it is not yet clear whether Prime Minister Brown can survive a political coup... or even whether he would be better off resigning, Dick Nixon style, in the interest of sparing greater turmoil."

The entire article:
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/litle/2009/0610.html