American Interests in South Asia

Aspen Policy Books is a series devoted to identifying and circulating critical new thinking on national security challenges. This book is a collection of papers commissioned for the 2010 Aspen Strategy Group workshop. This bipartisan, high-level examination of American interests in the region outlines geopolitical realities that challenge stability in the region and identifies policy strategies to confront them. The papers enclosed address such topics as the balance of power in South Asia, the US mission in Afghanistan, an evaluation of American foreign aid, relations between India and Pakistan, and an analysis of the future in this incredibly important region.

American Interests in South Asia: Building a Grand Strategy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, is the latest in a series of policy books stemming from the Aspen Strategy Group's annual summer workshop. The book contains a collection of commissioned papers that provide an intensive exploration of the interconnected national security challenges posed by the events in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Chapters focus on the lessons from history and balance of power in the region, the current strategy in Afghanistan, the effect of American foreign assistance and private sector development, and the implications for the United States of India-Pakistan relations Together, these chapters seek to further collective understanding of the current issues facing the region and help policymakers find a way to cope with what has become one of America's most pressing security problems. The papers commissioned for the conference are now available in paperback compiled by Director Nicholas Burns and Deputy Director Jonathon Price. It is available through the Aspen Institute bookstore and Brookings Press.

The Aspen Strategy Group's mission is to provide a bipartisan forum to explore the preeminent foreign policy puzzles facing the United States. Its cross-disciplinary and high-level examination of policy strategies for addressing preeminent and emerging topics makes it crucially relevant to the American and global policy communities.