Burma

More than three weeks after Cyclone Nargis, Burma's military junta has permitted a trickle of UN aid into the country -- but no relief supplies from the U.S., French, and U.K. warships that sit just off Burma's coast.

The warships in the Bay of Bengal have not been rendered useless. Their very presence has no doubt played a role in the junta's decision to let the UN operate in cyclone-ravaged areas to the degree that it has. From the junta's viewpoint, better a few UN helicopters and a modest number of international relief workers than a massive aid operation mounted by Western militaries, which would have embarrassed the junta and perhaps threatened its grip on power.

Burma's junta continues to obstruct aid and divert it from cyclone victims.

There's no excuse for the behavior of Burma's leaders, but history offers an explanation that goes beyond sheer autocratic barbarism. As friendly as the Burmese can be to Western tourists, they have reason to be suspicious about their neighbors and outside powers -- they have been sandwiched between empires in India and China; subjugated and exploited by Great Britain; devastated by Japan (and the Allies) during World War II; and vulnerable in the second half of the 20th century to meddling by Thailand, rogue Chinese nationalists, and other factions and interests. Hand in hand with that xenophobia goes a fierce pride: For much of their history they've been not just survivors, but builders of a Burmese empire that, at its zenith in the mid-11th century, controlled a large chunk of mainland Southeast Asia.

A cyclone hit Burma, killing at least 22,000 and leaving another 40,000 missing and presumed dead.

Will the Burma cyclone lead to political upheaval in one of the world's most oppressive regimes? The indirect impact of environmental crises on politics is well established. Water shortages, flooding, nutrient-poor soils, and deforestation have all put pressure on governments and provided the backdrop to ethnic conflict. But it's been speculated that as populations rise in environmentally, seismically, and climatically fragile zones, unexpected natural events may not only pressure regimes but topple them as well.