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Featured reports

Report

Jun 20, 2022

The case for a US-India digital handshake

By Atlantic Council US-India Digital Economy Task Force

This report advocates for a US-India “digital handshake” to overcome substantive and institutional barriers in US-India digital economic cooperation.

Digital Currencies Digital Policy
Mass of Afghan people standing in a crowd

Issue Brief

Jun 9, 2022

Lessons from Afghanistan for Western state-building in a multipolar world

By Abdul Waheed Ahmad and Dr. Gabriella Lloyd

The emergent multipolar world has created new challenges for Western liberal democratic diplomats and leaders. Among these challenges is how to continue to support developing allies in a political landscape where these allies are facing growing, existential threats from powerful, authoritarian anti-liberal states. 

Afghanistan Economy & Business

Past events

Public Event Thu, August 4, 2022 • 5:00 pm EDT

Should overseas Pakistanis have a vote in Pakistan?

Join the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and the Muslim American Leadership Alliance for a conversation on the history, politicization, and future of overseas voting in Pakistan.
Elections Pakistan Politics & Diplomacy South Asia

Engaging Afghan women and civil society in US policymaking

The launch of the US-Afghan consultative mechanism

Join USIP, the Atlantic Council, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the Sisterhood is Global Institute and the U.S Department of State for the launch of the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism (USACM). U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will provide opening remarks, followed by a discussion moderated by U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri and representatives of the USACM platform. 
WATCH here

An interview with Dr. Lotay Tshering, Honorable Prime Minister of Bhutan

read more here
event recap

Countries in focus

AFGHANISTAN
bangladesh
india
pakistan

SPOTLIGHT:

The latest on US-India Trade Initiative

The Atlantic Council’s US-India trade initiative seeks to facilitate lasting, meaningful economic engagement between both countries and complement efforts by the US Government to strengthen the broader US-India relationship and vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

VIEW THE INITIATIVE
South Asia Center

New Atlanticist Apr 27, 2022

As the EU courts India on trade, here’s what to watch

Brussels wants to bring New Delhi closer into its economic orbit—but that won’t be so easy.

Read More
South Asia Center

New Atlanticist Apr 20, 2022

How Biden can secure better trade terms

By Mark Linscott

Here’s why the US Generalized System of Preferences program could be a vital tool in addressing US export interests.
Economy & Business Macroeconomics
South Asia Center

Issue Brief Apr 19, 2022

E-commerce policy for a new digital India

By Anand Raghuraman

As India looks to revise its e-commerce frameworks, policymakers in Delhi have a unique opportunity to articulate core principles and processes that can deliver practical, inclusive, and durable policy solutions.
Digital Policy Economy & Business

SouthAsiaSource blog

South Asia Center

New Atlanticist Aug 12, 2022

Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud: There is ‘no other option’ but to fight on against the Taliban

By Atlantic Council

“Unfortunately,” Massoud told the Atlantic Council, Taliban leaders “have not changed. They are even more radical than before.”
Afghanistan Conflict
South Asia Center

SouthAsiaSource Aug 12, 2022

Pakistan at 75: Learning from history to chart a better future

By Uzair Younus and Ilhan Niaz

As it celebrates seventy-five years of independence, Pakistan today “requires a change in political thinking across the political class,” says historian and author Dr. Ilhan Niaz.

Conflict Migration
South Asia Center

Event Recap Aug 10, 2022

Event recap: Should overseas Pakistanis have a vote in Pakistan?

By Vrinda Batra

On August 4, 2022, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center along with the Muslim American Leadership Alliance hosted an in-person conversation on the history, politicization, and future of overseas voting in Pakistan.

Civil Society Elections
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Reports and issue briefs

South Asia Center

Issue Brief Jun 9, 2022

Lessons from Afghanistan for Western state-building in a multipolar world

By Abdul Waheed Ahmad and Dr. Gabriella Lloyd

The emergent multipolar world has created new challenges for Western liberal democratic diplomats and leaders. Among these challenges is how to continue to support developing allies in a political landscape where these allies are facing growing, existential threats from powerful, authoritarian anti-liberal states. 
Afghanistan Economy & Business
South Asia Center

Issue Brief Apr 19, 2022

E-commerce policy for a new digital India

By Anand Raghuraman

As India looks to revise its e-commerce frameworks, policymakers in Delhi have a unique opportunity to articulate core principles and processes that can deliver practical, inclusive, and durable policy solutions.
Digital Policy Economy & Business
South Asia Center

Issue Brief Apr 11, 2022

US-India economic integration: Towards an agenda for growing manufacturing and resilient supply chains

By Atman Trivedi, Katherine Hadda, Akhil Bery

China’s rise and COVID-19 have injected greater urgency into how the United States and India work together to attract global manufacturing and ensure greater supply-chain resiliency.

Economy & Business India
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Strategic dialogues

Developing a long-term transatlantic framework for peace and security in Afghanistan

Between fall 2020 and summer 2021, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center will host a set off private, high-level strategic dialogues to develop and advocate for a longer-term strategic outlook for ensuring stability in Afghanistan as well as maintaining US and European counter-terrorism interests. This effort will look beyond the US elections, recognizing that a political consensus is emerging to support a drawdown in US security commitments, but no such consensus exists on the long-term relationship with Afghanistan.

US-India trade initiative

This working group will take a political-economic approach in its examination of US-India trade relations. It will begin by developing a shared understanding of existing formal and informal governmental relationships that drive current trade positions and negotiation, and will critically examine the political and economic incentives. It will then identify and consider potential agreements with mutual benefit and limited areas of disagreement that may be pursued to facilitate trust, as well as policy tools available to the United States and India.
view dialogues

Leadership

Staff

Irfan Nooruddin

Senior Director

South Asia Center

Elections Economy & Business

Staff

Uzair Younus

Director, Pakistan Initiative

South Asia Center

Economy & Business English

Staff

Harris A. Samad

Assistant Director

South Asia Center

Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Security & Defense

Staff:

Misha Iqbal (Project Assistant)

Capucine Querenet (Project Assistant)

Vrinda Batra (Intern, Georgetown Conflict Resolution Summer Fellow)

ABOUT THE CENTER

Join the South Asia Center mailing list

The South Asia Center serves as the Atlantic Council’s focal point for work on greater South Asia as well as its relations between these countries, the neighboring regions, Europe, and the United States.



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Experts

Fellow

Ketki Bhagwati

Senior Advisor

South Asia Center

Economy & Business Technology & Innovation

Fellow

Yelena Biberman

Nonresident Senior Fellow

South Asia Center

Terrorism Security & Defense

Fellow

Mark Brunner

Senior Advisor

South Asia Center

Defense Industry Cybersecurity

Fellow

Shamila N. Chaudhary

Nonresident Senior Fellow

South Asia Center

Political Reform Security & Defense

Fellow

Ajay Chhibber

Nonresident Senior Fellow

South Asia Center

Economy & Business Politics & Diplomacy

Fellow

Riffat Chughtai

Senior Advisor

South Asia Center

Civil Society Education
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Content

Pakistan India trucks

SouthAsiaSource

Aug 12, 2022

Pakistan at 75: Learning from history to chart a better future

By Uzair Younus and Ilhan Niaz

As it celebrates seventy-five years of independence, Pakistan today “requires a change in political thinking across the political class,” says historian and author Dr. Ilhan Niaz.

Conflict Migration

New Atlanticist

Aug 12, 2022

Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Massoud: There is ‘no other option’ but to fight on against the Taliban

By Atlantic Council

“Unfortunately,” Massoud told the Atlantic Council, Taliban leaders “have not changed. They are even more radical than before.”

Afghanistan Conflict

Event Recap

Aug 10, 2022

Event recap: Should overseas Pakistanis have a vote in Pakistan?

By Vrinda Batra

On August 4, 2022, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center along with the Muslim American Leadership Alliance hosted an in-person conversation on the history, politicization, and future of overseas voting in Pakistan.

Civil Society Elections

SouthAsiaSource

Aug 8, 2022

Collaboration, not competition, is key to alleviating the global chip shortage

By Ridhika Batra

If the international community seeks to diversify chip manufacturing and create safety nets for future crises, then collaboration—as opposed to competition—seems a logical and prudent first step.

China Economy & Business

In the News

Aug 5, 2022

Khan quoted in Bloomberg: South Asia debt woes evoke fears of another 1997-style crisis

By Atlantic Council

Bangladesh Economy & Business

AC Selects

Aug 5, 2022

AC Selects: China’s elite politics and overseas voting in Pakistan

Events from week of August 5, 2022 Last week, the Global China Hub hosted Victor Shih, Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego to explore whether Xi Jinping can replicate Mao Zedong’s successful strategy to maintain power. Meanwhile, the South Asia Center and the Muslim American Leadership Alliance convened its experts to discuss […]

China Conflict

SouthAsiaSource

Aug 5, 2022

Bangladesh’s economic crisis: How did we get here?

By Ali Riaz

Bangladesh's economic and financial crisis was paved by the policies of the Hasina government and an unaccountable system of governance of the past decade. 

Bangladesh Economy & Business

In the News

Aug 4, 2022

Riaz quoted in The Daily Star: Dhaka too may feel the heat

By Atlantic Council

Bangladesh China

In the News

Aug 4, 2022

Ahmad published in The Hill: After al-Zawahiri, what’s next for America’s Taliban policy?

By Atlantic Council

Afghanistan Politics & Diplomacy

SouthAsiaSource

Aug 3, 2022

Experts react: Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of al-Qaeda, killed by US drone strike in Afghanistan

By South Asia Center experts

South Asia Center experts provide their analyses of the US drone strike in Kabul that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda.

Afghanistan Middle East
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