The Case for an India-First South Asia Strategy

Excerpt

Against the backdrop of deepening strategic com-petition with Beijing, Washington’s attention is steadily turning to the need for a comprehensive strategy by which to engage South Asia. Less well defined, however, is what such a strategy might actually look like.

Here, some strategic clarity is needed. If an American strategy for the region is to be effective, it needs to be nested within a coherent, unflinching assessment of the threats to the United States that exist in the region, and to the nation’s larger strategic goals. Moreover, a U.S. approach must then be implemented through a redesigned engagement process—one that leverages the whole-of-government to help define for America’s regional allies and partners the true implications of the activities of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its ruling Communist Party, as well as what the PRC’s activities might mean for China itself as well as for the world at large.