The United States and South Asia After Afghanistan (Delhi Launch)

U.S. interests in South Asia are evolving. An intense focus on counterterrorism and Afghanistan since 9/11 is giving way to a broader range of interests. Washington takes India's global status seriously and is working closely with New Delhi on a range of regional and global issues. China's rise, often neglected as a factor in South Asia policy, is encouraging a more strategic U.S. approach to Asia policy as a whole. As a result, a significant opportunity now exists to rethink U.S. South Asia strategy.

An upcoming report by Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow Alexander Evans draws on over 90 interviews with a range of current and former U.S. policy practitioners from the State Department, National Security Council, Congress, and the intelligence community to consider how the United States can achieve an integrated South Asia policy following the 2014 military drawdown in Afghanistan. The report, which benefits from the expertise of the Asia Society Advisory Group on U.S. Policy toward South Asia, includes recommendations for better incorporating expertise into policy planning.

In conjunction with the report's release, please join us for a discussion on the prospects for achieving a strategic U.S. approach to South Asia and the hard choices an incoming Administration will need to make to get there. An event will also take place in Washington D.C. on December 11, in New York on December 12 and in Islamabad, Pakistan on December 18.

Alexander Evans is a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society and a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He was a senior advisor to the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and then to Ambassador Marc Grossman, the U.S. Special Representatives for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has served as a British diplomat in Islamabad and New Delhi and was a member of the Policy Planning Staff in London.

Manoj Joshi is a journalist, author, and former member of India's National Security Advisory Board. He currently serves as deputy editor of Mail Today,and has worked as a political editor for The Times of India, as well as in various roles with India Today, The Hindu, and Financial Express. He is also a member of the council of the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi. He previously served as a visiting professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a visiting fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra.

Kanwal Sibal served as Foreign Secretary of India from 2002 to 2003. He has held myriad foreign service positions, including Joint Secretary (Administration/West Europe) in India's Ministry of External Affairs; Ambassador of India to Turkey, Egypt, and France; and Deputy Chief of Mission to the Embassy of India in Washington D.C.

C. Raja Mohan (discussion chair) is head of Strategic Studies and a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. He is currently a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, having previously served two additional two-year terms. He is also a foreign affairs columnist for The Indian Express, a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, and a non-resident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C.

More information on the upcoming report can be found here. For more information on Asia Society's work on Pakistan, please see our recent reports, Stabilizing Pakistan through Police Reform and Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future.

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