It seems to me that the entire southern and western tiers of nations which have borders that are contiguous with the Old Evil Empire (USSR) are now being almost entirely reinvigorated by Pro-West, populist democracy movements.
When added to the democracy movements now sweeping through the Arab nations, this means that another fourth of humanity will soon be free - and then soon after, enjoy the prosperity which ONLY freedom creates.
Only a few other oddball tyrants are left (or Left, if you know what I mean!): the Mullahs of Iran, Mugabe, Castro, Kim Jong Il, Chavez, and a few others.
AND THEN THERE'S CHINA AND RUSSIA: Russia, certainly seems to be slipping back into authoritarianism; and China just continues to wallow deep in totalitarianism. My feeling is that these two unliberated Goliaths will not be transformed into real democracies until the rest of the world is. WHY!? Because their size (economically and militarliy) makes them less susceptible to concerted (yet oblique) efforts by the libertarian governments of the West (led by the Bush Administration) to foment the types of populist movements we saw take hold in Georgia, Ukraine, and Lebanon.
To put more pressure China and Russia we need to strengthen India, Japan and New Europe - and strenghthen our TIES to these democracies, too. This can be done bilaterally (in the case of economic and military ties to India and the new democracies of "eastern" Europe), and also by getting Japan and India on to the UNSC. [ASIDE: We should also insist that the EU be reduced to one, "rotating seat" or shared-seat on the UNSC; this will reduce their interference. WHY?! Well, either Europe is a single united polity or it is several independent states; in my opinion, right now they are "having their cake and eating it too" - like the old USSR, which had its own seat on the UNSC, and also had UN memersahip for each of its captive/satellite "states." Either that, or have each of the 50 US staes ap[ply for membership!]
The only pitfall in strengthening our relationship with India is that we risk, somewhat, our "relationship" with Pakistan - who (like Saudi Arabia) - is both a key ally in the "GWOT" and also a nation which has KEY elements of our dangerous adversaries. In my opinion, it is well worth the risk - and may, in the end, be just what we need to force REAL cooperation from Pakistan, and finally get them to establish the rule of law in their tribal regions, and to stop the spread of fanaticism in their HUGE domestic network of madrassas. These are two largely UNFULFILLED promises of Musharraf, and we need to make the Pakistanis live up to their committments on these fronts.
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