America's Role and Interests in South and Southwest Asia

This essay proposes to examine US interests in South and Southwest Asia from a Pakistan perspective.' The areas of focus have been limited to the mainland states; and larger issues affecting the Indian Ocean region, as well as the global conflicts of the superpowers, have been excluded. The author's view is that US interests in the region are primarily economic and strategic in nature. The analysis addresses the main threats to these interests, and suggests ways and means of dealing with them from the Pakistani viewpoint. Let me begin with a few comments on the region itself. Southwest Asia, or the general area of the Persian Gulf, is usually linked with the Middle East. Racial and linguistic affinities as well as the Arab-Israeli conflict pull the Gulf region toward the Middle East. But equally strong, if not stronger, pulls are now tying the Gulf region to South Asia as well. Both regions have a dominantly Muslim character. Even India, the only large non-Muslim state in South Asia, has a substantial Muslim minority. Moreover, the two regions are linked strategically and economically. Defense of the Persian Gulf is not possible without the defense of its outer reaches in the Arabian Sea. Indeed, the structure of power in the Indian Ocean is critically linked to the freedom and economic well-being of the Gulf states themselves. The economic development of the two regions has become interdependent. The Southwest Asian countries need the manpower, technical knowhow, goods and services of South Asia, while the South Asian countries have become dependent upon the markets, oil, and petrodollars of Southwest Asia for their own industrial development

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