Mr. Tudjman wooed Western backers, including the Americans, and refrained from using force until he had international support.

What President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers must do to promote security throughout Afghanistan is provide incentives for warlords to restrain their forces.

Within two decades - the time frame for "The Last Samurai" - Japan's industrialists and their Western backers all but replaced that status quo.

Mr. Karzai's victory is not the landslide that he and his Western backers had hoped for.

However, they were seen by the interim administration and its Western backers as being essential to securing the stability of Afghanistan.

And President Mubarak, battling a wave of attacks by Islamic militants, hopes to win favor with Western backers by helping to push the peace effort forward.

Germany is the Soviet Union's largest Western backer, having pledged $35 billion in credits since 1989.

For Mr. Karzai, the case traps him squarely between his Western backers and Afghanistan's conservative religious council, the Ulema, an important source of domestic support.

Nonetheless, the United States is perceived as President Mobutu's Western backer, which has made life uncomfortable for Americans living in this Central African country.

That would annoy his Western backers and jeopardize billions of dollars of aid he hopes to receive in coming months.