The fundamental security interests of the West lie in helping Russia to create a communications infrastructure … Without it, Russia and all the other republics will remain a powder keg where the three largest players still have thousands of nuclear weapons.
Predictor: Cook, Gordon
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine about networks in Russia, George Lawton talks with Gordon Cook, author of “Russian Telecommunications: Crisis Creation of Infrastructure.” Lawton writes: ”‘Russians understand totally the importance of communications in trying to rescue and link their economy, their science, and their education to the rest of the world,’ according to Gordon Cook … ‘Because their phone system is so poor, and their postal system is broken down as well (workers steal the mail in order to survive), they are usually dependent on computer network links, not only for the research and education activities common to the American Internet, but also for commercial links between banks, joint ventures, commodities exhanges, and so on … The fundamental security interests of the West lie in helping Russia to create a communications infrastructure … Without it, Russia and all the other republics will remain a powder keg where the three largest players still have thousands of nuclear weapons.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Global Relationships/Politics
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: The End of the Party Line: Russian Phone Service Stinks. In Desperation, Russians Are Turning to Outside Forces: MCI, Sprint and AT&T and a Burgeoning Patchwork of Homegrown Computer Networks
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/russnet_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney