In recent years, the world's focus on South Asia has increased dramatically. With the events of 9/11, the detonation of atomic weapons by both India and Pakistan, the discovery of an illicit nuclear proliferation network based in Islamabad, regime change in an unstable Afghanistan, and the rise of India as an economic power, global interest in the region has reached perhaps an all-time high. Leading experts analyze the key strategic, political, and economic issues touching on South Asia and its role in the world in the essays that make up this inaugural volume in the "Current History Books" series. Focusing on modern South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, this volume provides an overview of the events and trends that have rocked this increasingly volatile region over the past decade. Edited and with an introductory essay by Sumit Ganguly, a major authority on the region, this volume provides a critical introduction to South Asia. It also contains current maps, as well as a "Recent Chronology of Events" that provides a decade's worth of information on the region, organized by year and by country.