ers, and that the Soviet threat would disappear and become unipolar character in which the United States is the dominant world power. Had that outcome occurred or had American policy makers accepted such an outcome if it occurred, the need for a continuation of the special relationship between Pakistan and the United States would have ended. The relationship, however, did not end with the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
Given the uncertainties of the contemporary global political environment, the relationship between the two most powerful military forces on earth--the United States and Russia--will likely determine the political shape of the world for years to come. The Republic of Russia is, in effect, the successor state to the former Soviet Union. Although any of the 15 autonomous republics of the former Soviet Union could claim such a designation, the Russian Republic is the only one of those 15 states that retains any semblance of the international stature of the former Soviet Union.
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