FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 12, 2005
CONTACT: Jennifer Linker, 202/939-2372, jlinker@CarnegieEndowment.org
The U.S. decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan met with a strikingly muted response from New Delhi. According to Ashley J. Tellis, Carnegie senior associate and former National Security Council staffer, the lack of outcry is the result of a new and largely unreported U.S. strategy for remaking the region: to advance India as a global power, while assisting Pakistan in becoming a successful state. Tellis outlines the new strategy—which he welcomes—but analyzes its risks in a new policy brief, South Asian Seesaw: A New US Policy on the Subcontinent available here. Carnegie next month will release Tellis’ detailed recommendations for implementing the controversial strategy, in anticipation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington in July.
Tellis argues that in order to accelerate India’s ascension to great-power status, the United States should utilize the three strategic dialogues on energy, security, and economics to initiate policy shifts that will have the effect of accelerating Indian economic growth, integrating India into the global nuclear regime, and promoting rapid technological change in India. Concurrently, the U.S. commitment of economic and military aid to Pakistan ought to be oriented towards strengthening Pakistan and promoting regional stability.
India and Pakistan are both strategic opportunities for the United States, and Tellis argues that the administration’s new policy towards the subcontinent effectively gives notice that the United States will be “guided by the intrinsic importance of India and Pakistan to U.S. interests and not by fears that support for one would upset the other.” He attributes this vision to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, and Counselor Philip Zelikow, who see a transformed relationship with India as vital to the fight against terrorism and proliferation, and the preservation of a stable balance of power in Asia over the long term.
Tellis highlights the risks in reconstructing U.S. relations with South Asia, including the challenge of providing military assistance to Pakistan without evoking the ire of India, and accommodating India within the global nuclear order without destroying it.
Ashley J. Tellis is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment and former senior advisor to the U.S. ambassador in India. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. He is co-editor of Strategic Asia 2004–05: Confronting Terrorism in the Pursuit of Power (The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2004).
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