An Assessment of America’s Plan for a “New Silk Road”

ABSTRACT: The “New Silk Road Plan” developed by the United States in the years since the end of the Cold War represents a number of strategic objectives, the most important of which is to leverage economic measures to aid the US as it disengages from Afghanistan. The Plan aims to transform Afghanistan into a “hub” for economic integration between South and Central Asia through the development of regional infrastructure, energy projects and through liberalization of regional trade policies. However, because of the failure of efforts to improve the security situation in Afghanistan, because of conflicting interests between the United States and local states in the region, and because the United States has not been able to remove obstacles to regional economic cooperation across South and Central Asia, this plan has seen only limited progress. Even though it offers South and Central Asia financing and real incentives for economic cooperation, it is not able to transform the mode of regional cooperation at a fundamental level.