1.   And of course a dramatic burst of democratization has come in the former Soviet empire.

2.   As a former colonial empire, Britain has enough know-how and experience in getting divergent ethnic groups to co-exist.

3.   As in the rest of the former Soviet empire, the collapse of communism in Ukraine decentralized political power.

4.   At the eye of the storm sits Rice, a former Stanford University provost with an academic specialty in the former Soviet empire and arms control.

5.   A special report on the former Communist empire -- five years later.

6.   But what about the Croats, who also belonged to the former Habsburg empire?

7.   Even after the germ treaty took effect, tens of thousands of Soviet scientists and technicians in secret labs throughout the former empire worked at turning germs into weapons.

8.   Ethnic conflict is rife in the former empire and democracy at best sporadic.

9.   Even today, governments across the former empire function poorly.

10.   I will make clear that Russian economic blackmail or military meddling in their former empire will carry costs in relations with the United States. . . .