The EastWest Institute will create a policy study group on “Alternative Futures for Afghanistan and the Stability of South West Asia”. The group will include specialists and officials with strong knowledge of the region, especially the current situation and the detail of the political power structures at local, regional and national levels.

The first activity will comprise from a series of three policy seminars Brussels based, from September to November 2008, with a view to issuing a strategy paper. The strategy paper will be presented to a high level seminar in Washington DC and be published in early 2009 based on subsequent consultations. 

Themes

• Political Power and Control: Local Politics in 2009/2010
• Selected Province Case Studies: State of the Insurgency in 2010
• Religious and Secular Society in Afghanistan
• Pakistan’s Border with Afghanistan in 2010? (Afghanistan’s neighborhood policy)
• After Karzai? Religious Conservatives in Power?
• Roles for China and Russia (the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), India and Iran