Afghanistan, Central Asia, and U.S./NATO and Russia: Four New Carnegie Council Papers

On the eve of the Afghan elections, the Carnegie Council's U.S. Global Engagement Program presents a set of four papers—two by Americans, two by Russians—covering U.S./NATO-Russia cooperation on Afghanistan and Central Asia. Program director David C. Speedie notes that four major points emerge from the spirited discussion in these papers:

• The U.S./NATO and Russia have clear and urgent common interests in promoting long-term stability in Afghanistan, yet cooperation between Russia and the West is "episodic," rather than strategic or systematic.
• Afghanistan must be seen, not in isolation, but in a broader Central Asian context.
• Afghanistan is now, as one author puts it, "Obama's War."
• Although the Russian and American authors see NATO very differently, all agree that the very future of NATO may be viewed through the Afghan lens. Indeed, current challenges may render NATO obsolete in its present form.

The four papers are as follows:

• Obama's War Dr. Jeffrey D. McCausland, Carnegie Council Senior Fellow and Penn State Dickinson School of Law
• State of Denial? NATO at 60 and the War in Afghanistan Lieutenant Colonel Rick Olsen, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
• Prospects for U.S.-Russia Cooperation in Central Asia Dr. Yuri Morozov, Academy of Military Sciences, Institute for Far Eastern Studies, and Institute for United States and Canada Studies (ISKRAN)
• Pakistani, Afghan, and Iranian Factors of Influence on the Central Asian Region Dr. Sergey Luzianin, Institute of the Far East--Russian Academy of Sciences

This is the second set of papers resulting from a joint project with the Moscow-based Institute for United States and Canada Studies (ISKRAN), the most established and prestigious of Russia’s think tanks devoted to bilateral relations.

The first set of four papers are on U.S.-Russian Arms Control Priorities.