Focus Group Central Asia

    Dear Specialists:

    Thank you for accepting the contract to advise myself, my chief aides, and the leaders of the various branches of the government in this matter.  We wish your team to provide detailed information and analysis about certain social and religious issues of Islam preeminent in the world today.  In particular, we wish you to focus on the following areas: Russia and the south,  Afghanistan, Chechnya and other hotspots, and Turkey.  There is enormous potential wealth in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia in newly discovered oil deposits; and Turkey is a major NATO ally of the United States.  But the area is home to many new nations and a host of different ethnicities and religions and is the sight of bitter fighting and political instability in numerous places.  In trying to make sense of the historical forces at play and political realities today, we look to you and your expertise in trying to understand the region and to decide what our policies should be.

    In deciding what policies our government should pursue, it is absolutely vital that we have the best information and advisement possible.  I will rely heavily on you and your group's presentation to provide me with the information and advice necessary to do my job and to serve our national interests.  I  need not remind you of the vital importance of what we are studying to both our own national security, as well as that of the world generally.

    Good luck!  We await eagerly the presentation of your focus group. 

    Very Truly Yours, 

    President of the United States

P.S.  Be sure to read this last reminder as you sit down in your groups to start this project!