New America Policy Papers: 2013

Papers and other formal publications from our policy programs are available below. To jump to another year in the archives, please use the links at right.

Enhancing India-Pakistan Trade

  • By Nisha Taneja, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi
January 29, 2013

The trade normalization process between India and Pakistan will undoubtedly open new trade opportunities. This study assesses trade possibilities between the two countries, examines the physical and regulatory impediments to realizing the trade potential, and suggests how the trade potential can be realized. The main findings and recommendations are summarized below.

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India-Pakistan Trade Relations

  • By Mohsin Khan, Senior Fellow, Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, Atlantic Council
January 29, 2013

One of the more significant recent economic developments in South Asia was the revival of trade talks between India and Pakistan in 2011. A question frequently raised is why India and Pakistan trade so little with each other despite the existence of common history, language, culture, and long borders. Economic theory and evidence from around the world would predict that trade between the two largest economies in South Asia would be far greater than its current level of around $2.5 billion.

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Public Attitudes Toward the Next Social Contract

  • By Bruce Stokes, Pew Research Center
January 15, 2013

The recent deliberations in Washington about the fiscal cliff have triggered a national debate in the United States about the nature, extent and future sustainability of key elements of the U.S. social safety net: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, support for education, the unemployed and the poor.

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Ecological Cooperation in South Asia: The Way Forward

  • By Saleem H. Ali, University of Vermont and University of Queensland, Australia
January 14, 2013

The greatest loss of human life and economic damage suffered by South Asia since 2001 has not been due to terrorism and its ensuing conflicts, but rather due to natural disasters ranging from the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the Indus floods of 2010 to seasonal water shortages and drought.  Although such calamities themselves might not be preventable, their human impact can certainly be mitigated. This report argues that such mitigation of environmental stresses is possible only through regional approaches to ecological cooperation.

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Avoidable Ignorance: Patient Decision Aids and Shared Decision Making

  • By
  • Shannon Brownlee,
  • Vanessa Hurley,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Ben Moulton, JD. MPH; Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
January 11, 2013

Every medical treatment comes with the possibility of both benefits and harms. Understanding these tradeoffs is particularly important in the case of elective tests and procedures, where more than one reasonable treatment option exists and medical evidence does not point to a particular treatment choice as the “right” one. Such treatments are often called “preference-sensitive” because the rate at which they are delivered is sensitive to, or in part depends upon the patient or the provider’s preference.

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