Russia, China, and the United States in Central Asia: Prospects for Competition and Cooperationp

The first block quote below shows an abstract of an article submitted to the U.S. Army War College.  Subsequent block quotes are from the downloaded article (available for free).  I have long since gotten over my surprise that articles from these sources often seem to advocate against military force.  In this case, it seems like the author feels that building democracy will strengthen the region and our strategic interests, while pursuing oil and gas (our current real policy, along with pursuing military bases)just benefits the local dictators and ultimately undermines stability.  Makes sense.  Our current policy has certainly been disastrous.