Saarc In The Twenty First Century

Challenges The Popular Presumption That Muslims And Hindus Are Irreconcilably Different Groups, Inevitably Conflicting With Each Other. Demonstrate How Indic And Islamicate World Views Overlap And Often Converge In The Premodern History Of South Asia.

Trade has played a critical role in global poverty reduction. In harnessing the potential of trade, some of the most successful countries have developed strong trade relationships with their neighbors. However, many South Asian countries have trade regimes that often offset the positive impact of geography and proximity. This report documents systematically the gaps between current and potential trade in South Asia and addresses important specific barriers that have held trade back. These barriers include tariffs and paratariffs, real and perceived nontariff barriers, connectivity costs, and the broader trust deficit. This policy-focused report unpacks these critical barriers to effective trade integration in South Asia through four in-depth studies that produce new, detailed, on-the-ground knowledge. Three of the studies are based on extensive stakeholder consultations. Two also rely on tailored surveys. The fourth study, on tariffs, benefits from new data on paratariffs. The report also marshals new evidence showing how trading regimes in South Asia discriminate against each other. Given the South Asian context, incremental, yet concrete steps aimed at tapping the potential of deeper integration are appropriate. The report has been drafted in this spirit. It offers precise, actionable policy recommendations that could help achieve measurable progress in key areas of trade and integration that would be to the advantage of all countries in the region.

This edited collection analyzes the innovative changes in Japan’s foreign policy. Pursuing new relationships with South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, Japanese initiatives include regional peace-building and human security activities, Asian multilateralism, and the Indo-Pacific concept. This collection focuses on these evolving international relationships through Japan’s unique approach to political change and continuity.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an international organization comprised of the eight countries in South Asia. This work aims examine the institutional structure, objectives and effectiveness of the SAARC in its role as South Asia’s leading regional institution. Drawing on original research it offers a fresh and accessible account of SAARC, arguing that South Asia forms a unique regional security complex that enables certain forms of regional cooperation and bars cooperation on other issue areas. The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the SAARC, describing the historical developments that lead to its formation and examining key issues such as: The inner workings of Regional Centres and, their success in implementing the decisions reached at SAARC summits. How SAARC has sought to address critical new security challenges, such as health pandemics, terrorism, energy security South Asia’s economic cooperation and the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Challenges that expansion pose to the organization, particularly China’s suggestion to expand beyond the traditional borders of South Asia The work aims to evaluate what scope there is for formal institutions like SAARC to provide a permanent regional security architecture within which South Asian countries can effectively address important issues, and will be of great interest to all students and scholars of Asian security studies and institutions in general and students and scholars of international relations in South Asia in particular.

Right from the Himalayan hermit kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan to the island and archipelago countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the sheer variety of South Asia not only in geographic terms, but also in terms of culture, language and tradition is unparalleled. A wide array of religious beliefs existing in the region alongside distinctive mind-sets, tend to differentiate the countries that make up South Asia. The divisions however, of the region among countries are not the same as the divisions among cultures/religions. This book titled: Transforming South Asia: Imperatives for Action is the outcome of serious deliberations among well-known scholars, diplomats and policymakers at the Third Conference of the Asian Relations Conference Series organized by Indian Council of World Affairs in collaboration with Association of Asia Scholars in March 2012. Papers presented in the conference were thoroughly revised before publication and editors acknowledge with gratitude these insightful contributions. Most contributors to this volume believe in the pertinence of regional integration amongst various South Asian nations. Specifically, the volume sheds considerable light on the issue of regionalization and co-operation as tools to achieve the much longed for transformation in South Asia. Experts do not shy away from examining issues of conflict and how border disputes have often marred the positive spirit of regionalization as also other mechanisms of SAARC in its day-to-day functioning. Therefore an effort to present the complex reality objectively is visible. Contributors also underscore India’s role in regionalization of South Asia as being far more pragmatic since it has strengthened local synergies, especially at the level of their civil societies.

This book delineates the role that Pakistan should play in the largely anarchic world of the twenty-first century in order to best serve the country’s long-term national interests. Its main aim is to lay down the parameters within which Pakistan’s grand strategy should be formulated, taking into account the evolving global and regional security environment and Pakistan’s historical experience. Provided here is an in-depth analysis and critical evaluation of the past record of Pakistan’s foreign policy within this context, bringing out its successes and failures, strengths and weaknesses. Based on these analyses, a comprehensive approach is recommended for safeguarding Pakistan’s national security and promoting its prosperity utilizing a strategy that is a marked departure from the military-dominated, uni-dimensional policies the country has followed thus far. Besides providing guidelines to Pakistan’s policy makers and intelligentsia, this book will be of interest to academics, foreign observers, and general readers in understanding the constraints and parameters within which Pakistan – a de facto nuclear-weapon state of 190 million people at the cross-roads of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf – must operate to safeguard its national interests in the turbulent times ahead.

This book traces economic and political issues through SAARC’s thirty-year journey. Topical and well-researched, this collection provides a comprehensive assessment of SAARC and provides policy directives for the future. The book points out the issues and constraints that have hindered regional cooperation in South Asia. It establishes that despite being democracies, there has been little effort by member nations to promote regional cooperation in the public domain. It stresses that in view of the increased role that countries wish to play in globalisation, economic cooperation is the way forward. The book further argues that political will is the pivot on which the prospect of regional cooperation revolves.