About the book:
South Asia looms large in American foreign policy. Over the past two decades, the United States has invested billions of dollars and thousands of human lives in the region, to seemingly little effect. As Srinath Raghavan reveals in The Most Dangerous Place, this should not surprise us. Although the region is often regarded as peripheral to America’s rise to global ascendancy, the United States has long been enmeshed in South Asia. For 230 years, America’s engagement with India, Afghanistan and Pakistan has been characterised by short-term thinking and unintended consequences. Beginning with American traders in India in the eighteenth century, the region has become a locus for American efforts-secular and religious-to remake the world in its image. Even as South Asia has undergone tumultuous and tremendous changes from colonialism to the world wars, the Cold War and globalisation, the United States has been a crucial player in regional affairs.
The definitive history of US involvement in South Asia, The Most Dangerous Place presents a gripping account of America’s political and strategic, economic and cultural presence in the region. By illuminating the patterns of the past, this sweeping history also throws light on the challenges of the future.
About the author:
Srinath Raghavan is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research.
The book launch will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Shyam Saran, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and former Foreign Secretary, Govt of India, Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Editor, The Hindu and the author.
The discussion will be moderated by Rudra Chaudhuri, Sr Lecturer at South Asian Security and Strategic Studies, Kings College, London.
This talk has been organised by Penguin Random House.
