Currying favor: The pleasant warming of relations between the U.S. and India

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 10:54 AM Share

Well, hello, Delhi! As President Obama prepares to head off to India, CNAS is putting out a compendium of articles on U.S.-Indian relations. The papers include:

Unleashing U.S.-India Defense Trade
By Kenneth I. Juster, Ajay Kuntamukkala
America's Interests in India
By Marshall M. Bouton
India, the United States and the Global Commons
By C. Raja Mohan
The United States and India 10 Years Out
By Teresita C. Schaffer
The Strategic Implications of Indo-U.S. Private Sector Ties
By Rajiv Kumar

There's a rollout with a bunch of diplomatic bigshots tomorrow at the Newseum. Register here.

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CARDSHARP

8:54 PM ET

October 19, 2010

Is the US ready to ditch Pakistan?

It will be hard for the US to keep an already skeptical Pakistan as an nominal ally, if it sides with India. Also I question India's value in countering China's influence in the region (something that the US is no doubt seeking to do). India has been consistently out-maneuvered by China in its own neighborhood (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc), and the state of its armed forces is frankly lamentable.

JJJACKSON1

5:47 AM ET

October 20, 2010

US Vaccillation Should End

The Indo-US engagement is new and will take another decade or more to become palpable. However, it is already clear that if the US aligns with India, Pakistan will have no choice but to fall in line. For example, Pak wants to eliminate India's engagement in Afghanistan, despite the fact that India is immensely popular among ordinary Afghanis. This caused headaches for many US leaders, including General McCrystal, who stated that for this reason, US should curtail India's role in Afghanistan. However, if the US clarifies to Pakistan that if Pakistan allows India to participate, it will allow Kabul to train Afghani military officers in India, a desire already expressed by Afghani military leadership. Pakistan will see the light immediately. What Af-Pak needs is a US that sees its mission clearly and is willing to push to get there. As to India's value to the US in countering India, this is not fully in place now but will only grow, with or without US alignment with India. India is simply too big and innovative to not be a natural block to unimpeded Chinese ambitions. Now is the time for the US to invest in its relationship with India to preserve a world order in which US interests, such as liberal democracy and an open but well regulated global commons, continue to dominate.