Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future recommends a comprehensive package of policies to help the country overcome its numerous political and socioeconomic challenges by 2020. Although Pakistan's path will be shaped by many internal and regional factors, the international community, especially the United States and its allies, must continue to play a supportive role in preventing further deterioration and promoting genuine reform.

The report, published in May 2011, focuses on seven core issues that are essential to realizing a sound future for Pakistan by 2020:

1. Strengthening democratic institutions
2. Strengthening the rule of law
3. Improving human development and social services, especially in health and education
4. Developing the energy infrastructure
5. Assisting the victims of the 2010 flood in their recovery
6. Improving internal security
7. Advancing the peace process with India

To produce the report, Asia Society convened the Pakistan 2020 Study Group, the first of its kind in recent years to include a significant number of leading experts from Pakistan and the United States representing a range of sectors: former diplomats, military leaders, and intelligence officials, journalists and media personalities, economists and development specialists, scientists, and specialists in the fields of health, education, governance and law, and natural resources and the environment. The study group was directed by Hassan Abbas, Asia Society’s 2010 Bernard Schwartz Fellow.