Skip to main content
  • Sections
  • Search

Center for Strategic & International Studies

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • Sign In

Topics

  • Climate Change
  • Cybersecurity and Technology
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Governance
    • Intellectual Property
    • Intelligence, Surveillance, and Privacy
    • Military Technology
    • Space
    • Technology and Innovation
  • Defense and Security
    • Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
    • Defense Budget
    • Defense Industry, Acquisition, and Innovation
    • Defense Strategy and Capabilities
    • Geopolitics and International Security
    • Long-Term Futures
    • Missile Defense
    • Space
    • Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation
  • Economics
    • Asian Economics
    • Global Economic Governance
    • Trade and International Business
  • Energy and Sustainability
    • Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Impacts
    • Energy and Geopolitics
    • Energy Innovation
    • Energy Markets, Trends, and Outlooks
  • Global Health
    • Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Immunizations
    • Multilateral Institutions
    • Health and Security
    • Infectious Disease
  • Human Rights
    • Building Sustainable and Inclusive Democracy
    • Business and Human Rights
    • Responding to Egregious Human Rights Abuses
    • Civil Society
    • Transitional Justice
    • Human Security
  • International Development
    • Food and Agriculture
    • Governance and Rule of Law
    • Humanitarian Assistance
    • Human Mobility
    • Private Sector Development
    • U.S. Development Policy

Regions

  • Africa
    • North Africa
    • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Americas
    • Caribbean
    • North America
    • South America
  • Arctic
  • Asia
    • Afghanistan
    • Australia, New Zealand & Pacific
    • China
    • India
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Pakistan
    • Southeast Asia
  • Europe
    • European Union
    • NATO
    • Post-Soviet Europe
    • Turkey
  • Middle East
    • The Gulf
    • Egypt and the Levant
    • North Africa
  • Russia and Eurasia
    • The South Caucasus
    • Central Asia
    • Post-Soviet Europe
    • Russia

Sections menu

  • Programs
  • Experts
  • Events
  • Analysis
    • Blogs
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Congressional Testimony
    • Critical Questions
    • Interactive Reports
    • Journals
    • Newsletter
    • Reports
    • Transcript
  • Podcasts
  • iDeas Lab
  • Transcripts
  • Web Projects

Main menu

  • About Us
  • Support CSIS
    • Securing Our Future
Photo: Public Domain

You are here

  1. Home
  2. Transnational Threats Project
  3. Past Projects
  4. Northern Distribution Network (NDN)
Connect

Northern Distribution Network (NDN)

The Northern Distribution Network project analyzes the risks and opportunities associated with new and potential supply lines into Afghanistan.

Read the Op-ed from the New York Times: "Central Asia's Northern Exposure"

As the U.S. presence in Afghanistan increases, its demand for non-military supplies in 2010-2011 will be 200-300% more than the 2008 baseline. To accommodate this increase and address ongoing concerns with Pakistani supply lines, U.S. planners have opened the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a series of commercially-based logistical arrangements connecting Baltic and Caspian ports with Afghanistan via Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. In addition to NDN, Iran and China are also considered possible transit states.

NDN and the expanded US presence in Afghanistan will impact the geopolitical landscape of Eurasia. Key transit states will enjoy new leverage over Washington while others could apply pressure indirectly. This engagement is also a vehicle for increasing constructive U.S. interaction with transit states. Understanding and knowing how to manage these geopolitical challenges and opportunities will be critical for the United States and are core goals of this project.

While the impetus behind creating new supply lines is grounded in the military’s immediate needs, their establishment nonetheless offers a unique opportunity for Washington to further longer-term strategic goals. Prevailing in Afghanistan must include economic and political development reinforced by an expanded international commitment to the future of the region. The Obama administration is aware of these requirements and has incorporated them as core elements of its new Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. The second goal of this project is to ensure that the expansion of supply routes and the associated increase in America’s presence include plans for sustained economic activity across Afghanistan and Central Asia, and that this is paired with renewed, long-term U.S. engagement.

Luckily, these immediate needs and long-term objectives are not mutually exclusive, but rather are reinforcing. By linking logistics with the reinvigorated development and geopolitical goals called for in the White House’s Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy, this project will help the United States take responsible steps towards a viable Afghanistan that is economically and politically integrated with regional and global markets. At the same time, the project will help the United States further its interests within transit states all while expanding its logistical throughput capacity to Afghanistan.

Transnational Threats Project

  • About TNT
  • Current Analysis
  • Upcoming Events
  • Examining Extremism
  • Case Studies in Iranian Expansion Across the Middle East
  • Past Events
  • Past Projects
    • The Future of Al Qaeda and Associated Movements (AQAM)
    • Militancy and the Arc of Instability
    • Beyond the Wire Newsletter
    • Northern Distribution Network (NDN)
      • Public Preview
    • Global Security Advisory Group
    • Arnaud de Borchgrave Dialogue
    • Terrorism Backgrounders
    • Transnational Threats Project Past Initiatives
    • Transnational Threats Project Past Task Forces
    • Open Source, Trusted Information Network for Counterterrorism
Find Additional Content
Media Queries
Contact H. Andrew Schwartz
Chief Communications Officer
Tel: 202.775.3242

Contact Paige Montfort
Media Relations Coordinator, External Relations
Tel: 202.775.3173

Most Recent

On Demand Event
Oil Market Rebalancing: The Resilience of U.S. Output and the Role of Financials
May 20, 2015
Report
The Key to Success in Afghanistan
June 10, 2010
On Demand Event
The Key to Success in Afghanistan
June 9, 2010
Report
The Northern Distribution Network and Afghanistan
January 6, 2010
Report
The Northern Distribution Network and the Modern Silk Road
December 17, 2009
Report
The MAGAI™ Construct and the Northern Distribution Network
November 16, 2009
View all content associated with this program
Footer menu
  • Topics
  • Regions
  • Programs
  • Experts
  • Events
  • Analysis
  • Web Projects
  • Podcasts
  • iDeas Lab
  • Transcripts
  • About Us
  • Support Us
Contact CSIS
Email CSIS
Tel: 202.887.0200
Fax: 202.775.3199
Visit CSIS Headquarters
1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Media Queries
Contact H. Andrew Schwartz
Chief Communications Officer
Tel: 202.775.3242

Contact Paige Montfort
Media Relations Coordinator, External Relations
Tel: 202.775.3173

Daily Updates

Sign up to receive The Evening, a daily brief on the news, events, and people shaping the world of international affairs.

Subscribe to CSIS Newsletters

Follow CSIS
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

All content © 2022. All rights reserved.

Legal menu
  • Credits
  • Privacy Policy
  • Reprint Permissions