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Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
The Five Futures of Cyber Conflict and Cooperation
US Lessons for the Eurozone Restoring Confidence through Transparency
Prospects and Challenges for Increasing India-Pakistan Trade
A US-EU Action Plan for Supporting Democratization: Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
Council News
Jonathan Paris Discusses Syrian Crisis with France 24
Jonathan Paris, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, appeared on France 24 to discuss Russia's support for the Assad regime and what it means for a possible UN resolution against Syria.
Damon Wilson US Senate Testimony: Ukraine at a Crossroads
On February 1, Atlantic Council executive vice president Damon Wilson testified at a hearing of the US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on the topic: "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the US and Europe?"
Michele Dunne on US-Egypt Relations for NPR's Morning Edition
Relations between the US and Egypt have taken a downturn since Egyptian authorities raided the offices of seventeen nongovernmental organizations in December - three of them US-funded. Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about the situation and what it means for US aid to Egypt.
FEATURED ISSUE
The South Asia Center receives guidance and support from many experts throughout the world. Our senior fellows, guest-speakers, Center patrons, and visitors contribute heavily to the Center’s mission to “wage peace,” and engage the international community in the region. The Center asked our contributors the simple, but key question, “What you do expect in 2012?”
REGISTER
South Asia in 2010: High Stakes
Hilary Synnott | January 08, 2010
The 2009 strategy towards Afghanistan will fall to be reassessed in 2010. If exasperation and domestic political expediency override hard-headed analysis and lead to a reliance on kinetic options as a presumed final alternative, the consequences in the region – and for the U.S. – will be truly bleak.
Meanwhile, neighboring nuclear-armed Pakistan will not remain static. Home-grown terrorist groups which have forged opportunistic inter-connections and expedient ties with al-Qaeda threaten the state itself. Even if in 2010 the Pakistani army prevails in their current operations, they will not share western interests over Afghanistan. Nor will the elected government provide adequate political and economic leadership. President Zardari may be removed or stripped of his powers, and the intentions and efficacy of the main opposition are highly questionable.
Like Afghanistan, Pakistan needs external help to turn the corner. 2010 will test Western policy and practices in the region. China, Russia, India, Iran and Central Asia all have interests in the outcome. Needless to say, the stakes are very high.
Sir Hilary Synnott is a member of the Atlantic Council and a Consulting Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Security Studies. This essay is part of the 2010: A Watershed Year for South Asia web forum, a collection of expectations about the greater South Asia region in the coming year.
2010: A Watershed Year for South Asia
- Shoals Ahead – Shuja Nawaz
- A Pivotal Year – Jonathan Paris
- A Bleak Future – Ahmed Rashid
- Rise of the Asian Giants – Masood Aziz
- A Region in Flux – M.J. Akbar
- Black Swans – Cyril Almeida
- Difficult Times Could Get Worse – Bruce Riedel
- High Stakes – Hilary Synnott
- A Make or Break Year for Afghanistan – Jawad Joya
Photo: Reuters Pictures.
