Abstract

“South Asia 2060” is a dialogue among 47 experts from a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds, ranging from policymakers to academia to civil society activists and visionaries, on the likely longer-range trajectories of South Asia’s future. The collection explores current regional trends, possible future trajectories, and the key factors that will determine whether these trajectories are positive or negative for the region, as a region. Departing from a purely security-based analysis, the volume considers factors such as development and human well-being to reveal not what will happen but what could happen, as well as the impact present conditions could have on the rest of the world.

Adil Najam is vice chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, professor of international relations at Boston University, USA, and the former director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University. 

Moeed Yusuf is the South Asia adviser at the Center for Conflict Management, United States Institute of Peace.

“The Pardee Center and its authors should be congratulated for this ambitious and comprehensive effort to project trends and imagine alternative realities 50 years hence for areas that will remain key challenges in South Asia, ranging from democracy and regional identity to education to water management. This work will remain a valuable reference for scholars and practitioners alike as they strive to understand the effects of these trends and new realities in this diverse and perplexing region, soon to be the world’s largest, on the lives of people there, and on overall global stability. In addition, the well-researched ‘worst case scenarios’ can help focus the minds of governments and civil society to ensure that investments are made now that will ensure a positive shift in South Asia’s trajectory.”  —Robin Raphel, former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, USA

This book is the product of an ongoing dialogue among 47 experts from a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds, including thought leaders from the ranks of policymakers, academics and civil society. These thought leaders and visionaries discuss the likely longer-range trajectories of South Asia’s future as a region, focusing particularly on current regional trends, possible futures and the key factors that will determine whether these trajectories are positive or negative for the region.

Will we even be talking about a “South Asian region” 50 years from now? And will the region still be seen as a threat to global stability? This future-oriented exploration tackles these questions whilst departing from a purely security-based analysis to include factors such as development and human well-being, seeking to shed light on a whole spectrum of current issues that will affect the region into the future.

The essays in this book organically inform the collection’s coherent and nuanced outlook on the region, which offers both an introspective and globally aware perspective of the outcomes of the region’s development. The volume fills the gap in studies on South Asia by exploring its regional identity, as well as the potential of present conditions to impact the future of South Asia and the rest of the world.

“Leading experts on South Asia have gazed through the telescope and offered their predictions for the political and socioeconomic landscape of 2060. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic composite picture of a vibrant, dynamic and cohesive region. The prospects of South Asia evolving into Southasia are tantalizing. This is political astronomy at its best.”  —Lalit Mansingh, former Foreign Secretary of India

“South Asia still remains the serpent that eats its tail, but this book spurs fresh intellectual agency on a region that is in danger of missing its ‘moment.’ It offers a compelling set of arguments that pivot on the case for a stronger regional identity and imaginative thinking for a future constructed on hope. Required reading for policymakers looking for informed discourse as well as much-needed unconventional wisdoms on South Asia.”  —Sherry Rehman, former Federal Minister of Pakistan

“[A]n all-star cast of serious scholars covering a number of topics. […] The range of topics undertaken is nearly encyclopedic: South Asia as a region, state relations, economic development, and human well-being. However, there is a commonality of perspective running through nearly all of the essays, regardless of topic.” —William G. Vanderbok, “Exemplar: The Journal of South Asian Studies”