Russia, U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan And The "New Silk Road"

I have had a couple of new stories on The Atlantic's website over the last week. One is on Russian fears over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan:

When the U.S. starts its scheduled troop pullout from Afghanistan in 2014, it will represent the end of America's bloody decade-plus engagement there, and the fading away of Americans' attention to Central Asia. But to Russians, 2014 instead marks a beginning: when Afghanistan becomes their problem again.

And the other is on the U.S.'s post-Afghanistan economic stabilization plan and the doubts surrounding it:

But hope may be the only thing driving on the New Silk Road. The State Department has few good options in Afghanistan, and the U.S. doesn't want to leave (or at least wants to seem like they won't leave) a disaster behind once it starts pulling troops out in 2014. So it cast about for ideas and found the New Silk Road proposal, which had been bouncing around the post-Soviet think tank circuit in Washington since the mid-oughts.