(...)

"With regard to Central Asia, I think we have a dual purpose, maybe a triple purpose, with those bases," Ted Galen Carpenter, the vice president for defense and foreign-policy studies at the Cato Institute, a private Washington think tank, told RFE/RL. "Certainly, we want bases in Central Asia for operations against the remaining Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives in that region. But having bases in Central Asia also sends a message to China and to Russia that this is now a significant U.S. sphere of influence."

(...)

"For many Russians, this looks like an encirclement strategy to intimidate Russia. (...)" Carpenter said.

Carpenter said this Russian perception is not entirely inaccurate. He believes part of U.S. strategy is to encircle Russia, which he calls a recent enemy that must still prove itself as a democracy and a friend of the West.

(...)


Source: U.S.: What Is Strategy For Bases In Former Soviet Bloc?               
            RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty 7.12.2005 

            (this article also reappeared on the specialized website               
             GlobalSecurity.org)


Ted Galen Carpenter is vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a respected american non-profit think-tank, whose political orientation can be best labelled with terms "libertarianism" or "market liberalism".
Carpenter himself is the author of seven and the editor of ten books on international affairs and a few hundreds of articles and studies on these topics (he has published in prestigious Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, World Policy Journal etc.). He also serves on the editorial board of academic journal the Journal of Strategic Studies and is a frequent guest on radio and television programs all around the world.