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Senior Study Group on Strategic Stability in Southern Asia

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Beginning in June 2021, USIP convened a group of senior experts to assess concerns that recent geopolitical and technological trends increasingly threaten the tenuous stability of Southern Asia. Over seven virtual plenary sessions, the senior study group assessed the changing capabilities, doctrines, threat perceptions and crisis response behavior of the main regional nuclear actors. Their final report summarizes those findings, considers U.S. policy options and identifies priority recommendations for the resolution or mitigation of core disputes, the enhancement of regional strategic stability, and the management of potential future crises.

Southern Asia has the unfortunate distinction of being the world’s only region where three nuclear-armed states share contested and frequently violent borders, and where two nuclear powers — India and Pakistan — have launched airstrikes on each other’s territories. China’s presence in the region, felt through sharpening border tensions with India and a deepening strategic partnership with Pakistan, is also reshaping the strategic balance, as is the deepening U.S. partnership with India. While uncontrolled escalation has been averted during recent flashpoint episodes — including an errant Indian missile launch in March 2022, clashes along the China-India border in 2020-2021, and the 2019 Pulwama-Balakot crisis between India and Pakistan — there are still a substantial range of potential crisis triggers.

The USIP Senior Study Group on Southern Asia’s final report considers the challenges posed to the United States and regional security by the changing strategic balance in Southern Asia and identifies priority recommendations for the United States to forestall conflict or manage crises in the event that they occur.

Final Report

Enhancing Strategic Stability in Southern Asia study group report cover

Enhancing Strategic Stability in Southern Asia

This report reviews the challenges posed by changing strategic circumstances in Southern Asia, assesses a range of US policy options, and presents a set of priority recommendations for US policymakers.

Featured Resources

Study Group Members

Co-Chairs

  • Daniel Markey, United States Institute of Peace
  • Andrew Scobell, United States Institute of Peace 
  • Vikram J. Singh, United States Institute of Peace

Senior Study Group Members

  • Zack Cooper, American Enterprise Institute
  • Toby Dalton, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Robert Einhorn, Brookings Institution
  • M. Taylor Fravel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Kyle Gardner, George Washington University
  • Jack Gill, National Defense University
  • Sameer Lalwani, Stimson Center
  • Antoine Levesques, International Institute for Strategic Studies
  • Shuja Nawaz, Atlantic Council
  • Ankit Panda, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  • Lynn Rusten, Nuclear Threat Initiative
  • Lora Saalman, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
  • Yun Sun, Stimson Center
  • Elizabeth Threlkeld, Stimson Center
  • Joshua White, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
  • Diana Wueger, Naval Postgraduate School

BRAHMOS Missile Launchers. (Wikicommons)

Event

China, India and Pakistan: Standing at the Brink of Crisis

A Look at the Final Report from USIP's Senior Study Group on Strategic Stability in Southern Asia

Study group members will discuss their findings and offer priority recommendations for U.S. policymakers working to de-escalate tensions in Southern Asia and establish safeguards against future conflicts.

Watch the event webcast