CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IN CENTRAL ASIA

President Obama has outlined a comprehensive
strategy for the war in Afghanistan which is now the
central front of our campaign against Islamic terrorism.
The strategy strongly connects our prosecution of that
war to our policy in Pakistan and internal developments
there as a necessary condition of victory. But the
strategy has also provided for a new logistics road
through Central Asia.
In this monograph, Dr. Stephen Blank argues that a
winning strategy in Afghanistan depends as well upon
the systematic leveraging of the opportunity provided
by that road and a new coordinated nonmilitary approach
to Central Asia. That approach would rely heavily
on improved coordination at home and the more
effective leveraging of our superior economic power in
Central Asia to help stabilize the region so that it provides
a secure rear to Afghanistan. In this fashion we
would help Central Asia meet the challenges of extremism,
of economic decline due to the global economic
crisis, and thus help provide political stability
in states that are likely to be challenged by the confluence
of those trends.
This timely monograph contributes directly to the
debate on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Central
Asia in the hope that policymakers will find it informative
and useful, and those who may be called upon to
implement the policy will be able to do so more effectively.