Worldwide Locations
Worldwide Locations
The United States and South Asia After Afghanistan
Clockwise from top left: Hamid Karzai, President, Afghanistan; Asif Ali Zardari, President, Pakistan; Barack Obama, President, United States; Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, India. (Secretary of Defense, The Prime Minister's Office, US Department of Labor and London Summit/Flickr)
The Asia Society report, The United States and South Asia after Afghanistan, finds that a unique opportunity exists for the Obama administration to forge a more strategic, integrated, and successful policy toward South Asia. The report, written by Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow Alexander Evans, offers new ideas on how to integrate competing U.S. interests in South Asia, encourage stronger interagency collaboration across the East Asia-South Asia divide, and expand expertise on South Asia in the U.S. government.
According to the report, the United States will best position itself for success after the 2014 military drawdown in Afghanistan by taking a fresh approach to South Asia that considers each country on its own merits and avoids hyphenated “Indo-Pak,” “Af-Pak,” or “China-India” policies; thinks regionally about economic, security, and political issues; connects South Asia to an overall Asia strategy; and integrates diplomatic, defense, and development policy agendas.
The United States and South Asia after Afghanistan draws on over 90 interviews with a range of current and former U.S. policy practitioners from the State Department, National Security Council, and Congress. The report, which benefits from the expertise of the Asia Society Advisory Group on U.S. Policy toward South Asia, provides recommendations for improving policy toward the region post-2014. The launch of the report was accompanied by panel discussions on Dec. 11 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, Dec. 12 at Asia Society's headquarters in New York, and Dec. 20 in Delhi, India at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), in partnership with Asia Society's India Center.
Related Links and News
"Time for Recalibrating US Policy Toward South Asia," Asia Society, 12 Dec 2012
"Asian Regional Economic Integration," Keynote Remarks by Robert D. Hormats, U.S. Department of State, 12 Dec 2012
"US must continue to bet on India after 2014," NYDaily News, 11 Dec 2012
"What a U.S. Asia Policy Should Look Like," CNN.com, 10 Dec 2012
"US Needs an Integrated Asia Policy," South China Morning Post, 10 Dec 2012
"What's Next for US Policy Toward South Asia?" Asia Society, 10 Dec 2012
"The US and a Reimagined South Asia," Live Mint, 10 Dec 2012
"US Can't Afford to Forget About Afghanistan Yet Again," Asia Society, 7 Dec 2012
"After Afghanistan, How Should the US Approach South Asia Strategy?" Asia Society, 6 Sept 2012
Members, Advisory Group on U.S. Policy toward South Asia
Alexander Evans (Project Director), Bernard Schwartz Fellow, Asia Society; Senior Fellow, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University
Hassan Abbas, Senior Advisor, Asia Society; Professor, College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University
Kanti Bajpai, Professor & Vice-Dean (Research), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Wendy Chamberlin, President, Middle East Institute; Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
Suzanne DiMaggio, Vice President, Global Policy Programs, Asia Society
Asad Durrani, Former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan
Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Hameed Haroon, CEO, Dawn Media Group
Karl F. Inderfurth, Senior Advisor and Wadhwani Chair, U.S.-India Policy Studies, Center for Strategic & International Studies; Former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs
Jehangir Karamat, Former Chairman Joint Chiefs and Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan
Amitabh Mattoo, Director, Australia India Institute
C. Raja Mohan, Head of Strategic Studies and Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, India; Member, National Security Advisory Board, India
Cameron Munter, Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
Vali Nasr, Dean, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Former Special Adviser to the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
John Negroponte, Vice-Chairman, McLarty Associates; Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; Former Director, National Intelligence
Phillip Oldenburg, Research Scholar, Columbia University
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Editor, Hindustan Times; Associate Fellow, Asia Society
Bhojraj Pokharel, Former Chief Election Commissioner, Nepal; Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepal
Christina Rocca, President, CBR Strategies, L.L.C.; Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs
Teresita Schaffer, Non-resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia
Farooq Sobhan, President and CEO, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute; Former Foreign Secretary, Bangladesh
Vikram Sood, Vice President, Observer Research Foundation; Former Chief, Research and Analysis Wing, India
Ashley Tellis, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia, National Security Council
Steven Wilkinson, Nilekani Professor of India and South Asian Studies, Yale University
Frank G. Wisner, Foreign Affairs Advisor, Patton Boggs; Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, India, Philippines, and Zambia; Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs; Former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Project Manager
Johan Kharabi, Senior Program Officer, Global Policy Programs, Asia Society
Research Associate
Bibi Atefa Shah
For further information, please contact: globalpolicy@asiasociety.org.
