Repaving the Silk Road

<p>The vast territory between the Black Sea in the West and China in the East was once home to the major trade route connecting Europe to the Far East known as the Silk Road. Today this area referred to as the Trans-Caspian region includes the nations of Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (Central Asia) along with Armenia Georgia and Azerbaijan (the South Caucasus). The Trans-Caspian is an area rich in natural resources and its vast oil and natural gas reserves may soon establish the region as a major energy supplier to global markets. Situated between China Russia and the Middle East the nations of the region are also geopolitically significant to the world's major powers. However despite their bountiful resources and a steadily increasing global interest the nations of Central Asia and the South Caucasus are also among the world's poorest socially repressed and politically corrupt.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>