South Asia

NATO Reduces Scope of Its Afghanistan Plans

By Thom Shanker, New York Times

After months of tense negotiations over the size and role of a postwar presence in Afghanistan, senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials say they are planning a more minimalist mission

Moving Out of Af-Pak

By Sherry Rehman

Tomorrow Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, will meet President Barack Obama in Washington, to signal Islamabad’s renewed interest in a broad-based relationship with the US. This will be the first opportunity for both leaders to size up each other’s resolve, identify new areas of cooperation, re-assess perennial issues, and calibrate upcoming challenges. Given that the bandwidth for […]

Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

By Shuja Nawaz

Dear Mr. President, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is meeting with you on Wednesday with high expectations. He is a pragmatic business-oriented politician with a powerful electoral base who has shown magnanimity and deftness in allowing opposition parties to form governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces, and he backed the election of a nationalist Baloch as the chief minister in Baluchistan. […]

Nawaz Sharif Comes to Washington

By Shuja Nawaz

When Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lands in Washington this weekend, he would not be blamed if he is wracked by mixed feelings. His last visit to the US capital, in July 1999, occurred in the wake of the Kargil adventure with India that he allowed to get out of hand, and which led to a […]

Has NATO’s ISAF Mission in Afghanistan Failed?

By Deutsche Welle

Some argue that accomplishments such as the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the denial of Afghanistan as a safe haven for his terrorist network by toppling the Taliban regime are enough to regard the mission as a success.

NATO Chief Rebukes Karzai, Defends Afghan Progress

By AP and NATO

From AP:  NATO’s secretary-general has sharply rejected Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s view that the presence of international troops in his country caused much suffering but achieved few gains.

The New Silk Road Project: A New Strategy?

The Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and the Central Asia Caucasus Institute held a vibrant discussion with Afghanistan’s Central Bank Governor Noorullah Delawari on the new transit and trade infrastructure that is debuting across Eurasia: the New Silk Road. This new commercial architecture aims to support Afghanistan’s economic, political, and security transitions by developing […]

Finance Minister Dar on Pakistan’s Continuing Economic Challenges

On October 9, the South Asia Center hosted Ishaq Dar, finance minister of Pakistan, for an event entitled “Pakistan’s Continuing Economic Challenges.” 

Lavrov: Afghanistan Not Ready for NATO Forces Pullout

By RIA Novosti

The development of the situation in Afghanistan clearly shows that Afghan security forces will not be in position to take control of law and order in the war-torn country after the withdrawal of NATO-led forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.