Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency conference report, numbered RTT 95-10039 and dated October 1995, presents the proceedings of a conference held 30 September to 1 October 1993. The CIA's Geographic Resources Division sponsored the conference. In it, academic geographers, anthropologists and US Government officials examined ethnic conflict by region, covering Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. The report also discusses what these conflicts mean for US policy. It does not deal with UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena.
“The Advance”17 pages
Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268 land suitable for cereal farming and horticulture, a rich petroleum field, several cities, and a population of 15-30 million. None of these observations distracts attention from a reality that precludes any prospect for the creation of an independent Kurdistan because a Kurdish state could come into being only if Iraq, Tur- key, and Iran were to display unprecedented coopera- tion and generosity. These speculative remarks reinforce a comment made at the beginning of this review: the Middle East is and will continue to be an area of contention and danger. As the only superpower and, indeed, the only external power capable of influencing events in the region, the United States has an unavoidable responsibility. At the least, we might hope that our experience since 1776 could be a source of illumination for those Middle Easterners—-the vast majority of them—who have never known democracy. Other hopes can be enter- tained. By encouraging govemment reforms, discour- aging excessive military expenditures, exposing human rights abuses, seeking by diplomatic means to promote peaceful settlement of border disputes, and organizing boycotts when such are required to prevent or punish reckless national behavior, the United States could expect to play a constructive role in the Middle East. We also need to recognize that the United States has been, and will continue to be, viewed with suspi- cion and even contempt as a new colonial power, well aware of the natural resources and strategic position of the region but incapable of understanding the aspira- tions and frustrations of its “difficult people.” 104 Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 205 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.