Siberian Development and East Asia: Threat or Promise?

With the development of western Siberia basically accomplished, Soviet planners have turned their attention to the resource-rich territories of eastern Siberia, which surveys and early explorations suggest could soon become a major world supplier of natural gas, coal, petroleum, wood pulp, and metals. In 1974 construction began on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a 2,000 mile rail line north of the Trans-Siberian, whose route was carefully planned to facilitate the maximum development of the area it traverses. This book is a probing analysis of the strategic, economic, and political implications of future Soviet development of eastern Siberia, with particular respect to the potential use of foreign investment and technology. Because the job is clearly too big to be handled efficiently by Soviet capital and technicians, a number of international projects have already been mounted. Thus the Japanese have joined the Soviets in offshore oil exploration near Sakhalin, and a joint Soviet-Japanese-American natural gas project in Yakutia has been proposed. More such projects are in the planning stage. The author presents the divergent perspectives of the USSR, the United States, China, and Japan on this vital matter, and concludes with comments on US policy alternatives.<