Indeed, the Nehru Gandhi condominium that has dominated Indian politics has itself undermined the party s survival prospects by making it immensely difficult for it to recruit and develop new leaders. It is common knowledge that, for the last eight years, Sonia Gandhi has exercised virtually total control within the party.

Moreover, Central Asian leaders are eager to maintain NATO s presence in Eurasia as a way to balance China and Russia. Although the region s leaders generally enjoy good relations with both countries, they fear that Russian military and Chinese economic dominance could lead to the rise a Sino Russian condominium at their expense.

America s financial difficulties and foreign entanglements, together with China s economic ascent, led many last year to envisage the emergence of a sort of global condominium between the two countries. The G 8 had morphed by necessity into the G 20, which, whenever it really mattered, would shed its zero the United States and China would call the shots.