The Merits Of Regional Cooperation

This book highlights various cutting-edge topics and approaches to cooperation and regional integration in South Asia. Contributions from both South Asian and EU scholars carry the distinctive flavour of differing perspectives, in order to identify possible driving factors for regional cooperation. The book is divided into four parts: Peace and Stability focuses on how to combat terrorism and ideologies of hate, looks at governance in the context of cultural diversity, and examines the role of education in achieving traditional and human security; Economic Cooperation deals with potential EU-India trade relations as well as the issue of how to transform the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) into an effective and coherent economic space; Efficient Use of Resources analyses how the region can achieve more development; EU-South Asia relations elaborates on potential areas of cooperation between the two regions.

This book reviews progress with regional cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific and explores how it can be reshaped to achieve a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future. Consisting of papers contributed by renowned scholars and Asian Development Bank staff, the book covers four major areas: public goods, trade and investment, financial cooperation, and regional health cooperation. The book emphasizes how the region can better leverage regional integration to realize its vast potential as well as overcome challenges such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Costs and Benefits of Economic Integration in Asia brings together authoritative essays that identify and examine various initiatives to promote economic integration in Asia.

This Volume Presents The Reflections And Observations Made At The 1994 Kathmandu Meet On Regional Cooperation Stressing The Disadvantages Of Non-Cooperation And Benefits Of Cooperation And Suggesting Specific Approaches For Overcoming Hurdles.

The authors examine regional cooperation among neighboring countries in the area of regional public goods. These public goods include water basins (such as lakes, rivers, and underground water), infrastructure (such as roads, railways, and dams), energy, and the environment. Their analysis focuses on developing countries and the potentially beneficial role that international organizations and regional integration may play in bringing the relevant countries to a cooperative equilibrium. A major problem in reaching a cooperative solution is likely to be the lack of trust. If neighboring countries do not trust each other because of past problems, they may fail to reach a cooperative solution as each tries to maximize its gain from the regional public good. These strategies typically do not account for spillover effects and ultimately leads to losses for all parties. Other constraints on reaching a cooperative solution are its complexity and the financial requirements. Two types of institutions may help resolve some or all of these problems. International organizations can help with trust, expertise, and financing. The United Nations and the World Bank have been involved in a number of such projects in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, and have been successful in helping parties reach cooperative solutions. Regional integration agreements, though not necessary for regional cooperation, may also be helpful by embedding the negotiations on regional cooperation in a broader institutional framework. The authors examine these issues with the support of both analysis and a number of case studies.

This book provides fresh insights into concepts, methods and new research findings on the causes of excessive food price volatility. It also discusses the implications for food security and policy responses to mitigate excessive volatility. The approaches applied by the contributors range from on-the-ground surveys, to panel econometrics and innovative high-frequency time series analysis as well as computational economics methods. It offers policy analysts and decision-makers guidance on dealing with extreme volatility.

South Asian leaders have made it a priority to tackle key regional issues such as poverty, environment degradation, trade and investment barriers and food insecurity, among others.