Eastern Europe remain a neutralist buffer zone.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Beyond the Cold War �� Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: The Second Cold War

It sent 6, 000 soldiers into eastern Congo, supposedly to create a buffer zone against Congolese-based Ugandan rebels.

ECONOMIST: Uganda and Congo

Some suggest that, while Israel's peace treaty with Jordan is reasserted, a buffer zone could be drawn up on the eastern side of the Jordan river, perhaps monitored by peacekeepers from NATO or the UN, to protect Israel against an invasion from the east and to enable it to withdraw from the West Bank.

ECONOMIST: The Jordan valley: A dry bone of contention | The

Protected by uninhabited forests to the north, the Rockies in the west and arid country in the south, authorities set up a 323-mile long, 18-mile wide buffer zone along the other place rats might enter, Alberta's eastern border with Saskatchewan.

WSJ: In Alberta, Citizens Smell a Rat After Long-Banned Rodents Appear

Rwanda and Uganda, the Congolese rebels' main backers, now have a buffer zone on their western borders, which will help them contain their own rebels based in eastern Congo.

ECONOMIST: Heading for an African war | The