Dams, Terrorism, and Water Nationalism’s Response to Globalization and Development: The Case of South Asia

Agriculture production is directly dependent on climate change and weather. Possible changes in temperature, precipitation and CO2 concentration are expected to significantly impact crop growth and ultimately we lose our crop productivity and indirectly affect the sustainable food availability issue. The overall impact of climate change on worldwide food production is considered to be low to moderate with successful adaptation and adequate irrigation. Climate change has a serious impact on the availability of various resources on the earth especially water, which sustains life on this planet. The global food security situation and outlook remains delicately imbalanced amid surplus food production and the prevalence of hunger, due to the complex interplay of social, economic, and ecological factors that mediate food security outcomes at various human and institutional scales. Weather aberration poses complex challenges in terms of increased variability and risk for food producers and the energy and water sectors. Changes in the biosphere, biodiversity and natural resources are adversely affecting human health and quality of life. Throughout the 21st century, India is projected to experience warming above global level. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers. Longevity of heat waves across India has extended in recent years with warmer night temperatures and hotter days, and this trend is expected to continue. Strategic research priorities are outlined for a range of sectors that underpin global food security, including: agriculture, ecosystem services from agriculture, climate change, international trade, water management solutions, the water-energy-food security nexus, service delivery to smallholders and women farmers, and better governance models and regional priority setting. There is a need to look beyond agriculture and invest in affordable and suitable farm technologies if the problem of food insecurity is to be addressed in a sustainable manner. Introduction Globally, agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. This vulnerability is relatively higher in India in view of the large population depending on agriculture and poor coping capabilities of small and marginal farmers. Impacts of climate change pose a serious threat to food security. “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (World Food Summit, 1996). This definition gives rise to four dimensions of food security: availability of food, accessibility (economically and physically), utilization (the way it is used and assimilated by the human body) and stability of these three dimensions. According to the United Nations, in 2015, there are still 836 million people in the world living in extreme poverty (less than USD1.25/day) (UN, 2015). And according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), at least 70 percent of the very poor live in rural areas, most of them depending partly (or completely) on agriculture for their livelihoods. It is estimated that 500 million smallholder farms in the developing world are supporting almost 2 billion people, and in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa these small farms produce about 80 percent of the food consumed. Climate change threatens to reverse the progress made so far in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. As highlighted by the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC), climate change augments and intensifies risks to food security for the most vulnerable countries and populations. Few of the major risks induced by climate change, as identified by IPCC have direct consequences for food security (IPCC, 2007). These are mainly to loss of rural livelihoods and income, loss of marine and coastal ecosystems, livelihoods loss of terrestrial and inland water ecosystems and food insecurity (breakdown of food systems). Rural farmers, whose livelihood depends on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. Most of the crop simulation model runs and experiments under elevated temperature and carbon dioxide indicate that by 2030, a 3-7% decline in the yield of principal cereal crops like rice and wheat is likely in India by adoption of current production technologies. Global warming impacts growth, reproduction and yields of food and horticulture crops, increases crop water requirement, causes more soil erosion, increases thermal stress on animals leading to decreased milk yields and change the distribution and breeding season of fisheries. Fast changing climatic conditions, shrinking land, water and other natural resources with rapid growing population around the globe has put many challenges before us (Mukherjee, 2014). Food is going to be second most challenging issue for mankind in time to come. India will also begin to experience more seasonal variation in temperature with more warming in the winters than summers (Christensen et al., 2007). Climate change is posing a great threat to agriculture and food security in India and it's subcontinent. Water is the most critical agricultural input in India, as 55% of the total cultivated areas do not have irrigation facilities. Currently we are able to secure food supplies under these varying conditions. Under the threat of climate variability, our food grain production system becomes quite comfortable and easily accessible for local people. India's food grain production is estimated to rise 2 per cent in 2020-21 crop years to an all-time high of 303.34 million tonnes on better output of rice, wheat, pulse and coarse cereals amid good monsoon rains last year. In the 2019-20 crop year, the country's food grain output (comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals) stood at a record 297.5 million tonnes (MT). Releasing the second advance estimates for 2020-21 crop year, the agriculture ministry said foodgrain production is projected at a record 303.34 MT. As per the data, rice production is pegged at record 120.32 MT as against 118.87 MT in the previous year. Wheat production is estimated to rise to a record 109.24 MT in 2020-21 from 107.86 MT in the previous year, while output of coarse cereals is likely to increase to 49.36 MT from 47.75 MT. Pulses output is seen at 24.42 MT, up from 23.03 MT in 2019-20 crop year. In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is estimated at 37.31 MT in 2020-21 as against 33.22 MT in the previous year. Sugarcane production is pegged at 397.66 MT from 370.50 MT in the previous year, while cotton output is expected to be higher at 36.54 million bales (170 kg each) from 36.07. This production figure seem to be sufficient for current population, but we need to improve more and more with vertical farming and advance agronomic and crop improvement tools for future burgeoning population figure under the milieu of climate change issue. Our rural mass and tribal people have very limited resources and they sometime complete depend on forest microhabitat. To order to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population, a new strategy needs to be initiated for growing of crops in changing climatic condition. The country has a large pool of underutilized or underexploited fruit or cereals crops which have enormous potential for contributing to food security, nutrition, health, ecosystem sustainability under the changing climatic conditions, since they require little input, as they have inherent capabilities to withstand biotic and abiotic stress. Apart from the impacts on agronomic conditions of crop productions, climate change also affects the economy, food systems and wellbeing of the consumers (Abbade, 2017). Crop nutritional quality become very challenging, as we noticed that, zinc and iron deficiency is a serious global health problem in humans depending on cereal-diet and is largely prevalent in low-income countries like Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and South-east Asia. We report inefficiency of modern-bred cultivars of rice and wheat to sequester those essential nutrients in grains as the reason for such deficiency and prevalence (Debnath et al., 2021). Keeping in mind the crop yield and nutritional quality become very daunting task to our food security issue and this can overcome with the proper and time bound research in cognizance with the environment. Threat and challenges In recent years, climate change has become a debatable issue worldwide. South Asia will be one of the most adversely affected regions in terms of impacts of climate change on agricultural yield, economic activity and trading policies. Addressing climate change is central for global future food security and poverty alleviation. The approach would need to implement strategies linked with developmental plans to enhance its adaptive capacity in terms of climate resilience and mitigation. Over time, there has been a visible shift in the global climate change initiative towards adaptation. Adaptation can complement mitigation as a cost-effective strategy to reduce climate change risks. The impact of climate change is projected to have different effects across societies and countries. Mitigation and adaptation actions can, if appropriately designed, advance sustainable development and equity both within and across countries and between generations. One approach to balancing the attention on adaptation and mitigation strategies is to compare the costs and benefits of both the strategies. The most imminent change is the increase in the atmospheric temperatures due to increase levels of GHGs (Green House Gases) i.e. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) etc into the atmosphere. The global mean annual temperatures at the end of the 20th

South Asia occupies a center stage in the global geopolitical landscape as a region with unresolved boundary disputes and economic dynamism, and as a crucial site for strategic competition between external players like China, Russia, and the United States. Hosting a quarter of the world’s population and a rich and diverse geography, its location is pivotal with respect to global supply chains. South Asia offers immense potential in sectors like hydroelectricity, agricultural commodities, and mineral resources. The bulk of the region’s trade and commerce happens through sea routes, and it therefore has salient interests in securing maritime security and connectivity. However, the region’s economic potential remains untapped owing to geopolitical rivalries and insecurities, laggard regional economic integration, and development deficit. Legacies of the colonial past and power asymmetry between India and smaller South Asian countries have played a spoilsport to developing a concerted effort to address some of the most pressing challenges in the region, like climate change and an energy crisis. The region has therefore failed to make meaningful progress on these collective action problems through forums like the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), as summit meetings and bilateral talks get embroiled in diplomatic tensions and conflicts over water resources and trade routes. South Asia’s geopolitical scenario is further compounded by major strategic inroads made by China through a series of infrastructure projects and soft power investments. This has challenged India’s position in the region, as geographic proximity and strategic stability are core determinants of India’s foreign aid and development assistance to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. In order to balance China, India and the United States and have cemented their regional partnership in a host of domains, such as climate mitigation, energy, food security, health, education, democratic institution-building, etc. They have also provided massive assistance to Sri Lanka, reeling under economic crises. Japan too has emerged as an active player in infrastructure development in South Asia, funding several projects on railway networks, ports, highways, tunnel roads, airports, and hydropower plants in Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Bangladesh. In addition, multilateral bodies such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) are being used to shape the development landscape in South Asia. This bibliography introduces readers to scholarly works that highlight connections between geopolitics and development in South Asia. Relevant literature on South Asia will help situate this understanding to explore donors’ geopolitical ambitions and diplomatic priorities in the region. The references on the topic have been thematically divided, starting with a general overview of seminal works on theoretical conceptualization of geopolitics of development and developmental history of South Asia in the backdrop of colonialism and Cold War. The subsequent sections relate to case studies from South Asia on themes such as geopolitics of foreign aid, extractive developmental politics in South Asia’s frontier spaces, geopolitics of infrastructure, connectivity, health, education, and environment.

Review: Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia By Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.) Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.). Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 428 pp. ISBN 0-8223-3150-0 (cloth); 0-8223- 3149-7 (paper). US$89.95 cloth; US$24.95 paper. Acid-free paper. In this eclectic and surprisingly cohesive anthology, the editors and authors invite the reader to explore the complexities within Asia's perspectives on the very concepts of nature, environment, and man. The papers published here were first delivered at a 1995 conference on Environmental Discourses and Human Welfare in South and Southeast Asia, and they have now been made available in this beautifully produced volume from Duke University Press. The essays might have traveled more easily under a simpler title, such as Nature in South and Southeast Asia, because only scant reference is made to the global studies paradigm that apparently inspired the more cumbersome title. Further, the contributors are not concerned so much with assessing specific projects as with introducing and exploring a broad range of Asians' ideas and discourses about the natural world. That said, the essays here are, without exception, well presented and fully documented. Historians and environmentalists with regional interests will find this book a useful guide to both the sources and contours of contemporary environmental debates and developments in South Asia, particularly in and Indonesia. For example, the foundations of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's compelling policy interest in wilderness preservation is explained in terms of her childhood attachments to animals and birds, including her experiences as a youthful political prisoner of the British during the 1942 Quit India campaign. The cultivation system of agrarian development introduced by Dutch administrators in 19th century Java is examined as a system that first penalized peasant relocation and later, in the early 20th century, produced officially sponsored internal peasant migrations to the outer islands of the Dutch Indies archipelago, with attendant cultural and environmental consequences. Vivid writing and creative styling, including case studies, an imaginary visit to a future museum, and a dialogue between an Author and a Critic, set a fast pace, and fascinating discussions abound. Three essays merit special mention. Historical, religious, and linguistic cues to the cultural locus of forests in the South and Southeast Asian mind is treated in a learned piece by Michael R. …

South Asia is one of the top remittance recipient regions in the world. Remittances constitute a significant portion of GDP and have helped South Asian countries to minimize a shortage of foreign reserves. Remittances have been an important source of income for many families in the region too. Despite the significant role of remittances at the local as well as national level, the impact of remittances on financial development has not been adequately studied in the case of South Asia. This paper utilizes a panel cointegration approach to examine the impact of worker remittances on financial sector development in the top remittance recipient countries in South Asia. We find evidence of a long-run relationship between remittances and financial development. Our test results show support for a positive and significant impact of remittances on financial development. The Pooled Mean Group tests suggest that a 1% point increase in remittances increases the credit to the private sector by greater than 1% points. The positive and significant impact of remittances on financial development is robust. The results support the existence of bidirectional causality between remittances and financial development in the long run.

The Sahel region, a vast expanse just south of the Sahara Desert, has emerged as a critical nexus where climate change and insecurity converge. This opinion paper explores how climate change acts as a threat multiplier in the region, exacerbating entrenched vulnerabilities such as poverty, weak governance, ethnic divisions, and competition over diminishing natural resources. Environmental degradation manifested through desertification, drought, and water scarcity has undermined traditional livelihoods, spurred internal displacement and cross-border migration, and intensified violent conflicts, particularly between pastoralist and farming communities. These dynamics have been further exploited by extremist groups and non-state actors who capitalize on ecological stress and governance failures to recruit members, consolidate territorial control, and challenge state legitimacy. Although regional and international stakeholders, including ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations, and donor organizations, have initiated climate and security interventions, many efforts remain fragmented, reactive, and poorly coordinated. This paper calls for a strategic shift toward proactive, climate-sensitive peacebuilding that prioritizes inclusive resource governance, fosters regional collaboration, and strengthens grassroots resilience. Addressing the climate-security nexus in the Sahel demands urgent, integrated, and multi-level action to mitigate further destabilization and promote sustainable peace.

Water is prime natural resources fulfilling our needs in a precisious assets. We must acts to preserve and utilize every drop of water. Water resources can be assessed on the basis of surface and subsurface water bodies. Climate change impact on ground Water the impact of climate change on ground water has been studied much less than the impact on surface waters. Ground water reacts to climate change mainly due to change in ground water recharge, but also change in river level in response to increase in mean Temperature, precipitation ,variability and sea level as mean precipitations. Changing land use pattern due to increasing, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture activities are serious issues that causing increase ground water with drawal resulting in depletion of ground water resources and mining of ground water resources, along with deterioration of water quality. Rainfall is highly irregular and erratic and declining year to year due to change climatic conditions as result of serious deforestation global warming etc. Human health is affected by change in biodiversity and ecosystem. Climate change will affect the quality of drinking water and impact of fresh water availability and impact on public health. About 70% of Earth’s surface is water of which 97.5% is salty water and 2.5% is fresh water. Less than 1% of this 2.5% amount of freshwater is accessible. As sea water rise’s, salt water of ocean in filtrate as coastal fresh water due heavy rainfall and flooding waste more fertilizer and municipal sewage mixed with coastal fresh water and change alter into more oxygen dead zone. Weather extreme and climate variability is main driver of food production in recent global challenge. Recent global challenge food security, fresh water availability, increase incidence of extreme high sea level. Loss of agriculture reproduction and increase in food prices and changes in weather patterns and alter availability and quality of water in many part of world. Climate change is an on-going phenomenon. This will inevitably bring about numerous environmental problems, including alterations to the hydrological cycle, which is already heavily influenced by anthropogenic activity. Chemical fertlizer’s has been adversely affecting the flora, fauna as well as soil quality . more ever every year plant pathogen are causing loss of 10 to 20% of agricultural production world wide. Ground water will be vital to alleviate some of the worst drought situations. flooding and contaiminated water supplies, more intense weather events are likely to increase to risk of infectious disease epidemics and erosion of low-lying and costal land. Climate Chang will affect the quality of drinking Water and impact of fresh water availlablity and impact on public health it’s better to use UV Water purifiers. This paper will explore what climate change. Water is prime natural resources fulfilling our needs in a precisious assets.we must acts to preserve and utilize every drop of water. water resources can be assessed on the basis of surface and subsurface water bodies. Climate change imapact on ground Water the impact of climate change on ground water has been studied much less than the impact on surface waters. Ground water reacts to climate change mainly due to change in ground water recharge, but also change in river level in response to increase in mean Temperature, precipitation, variability and sea level as mean precipitations. Changing land use pattern due to increasing, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture activities are serious issues that causing increase ground water with drawal resulting in depletion of ground water resources and mining of ground water resources, along with deterioration of water quality. Rainfall is highly irregular and erratic and declining year to year due to change climatic conditions as result of serious global warming .Impacts of sea level rise on salinity intrusion global climate change has resulted in gradual sea level rise. sea level rise can cause saline water to migrate up stream in estuaries and rivers, thereby threating fresh water habitat and drinking- water supplies. Hydrology all the costal margin; fresh ground water flowing in land areas meets with saline ground water from the ocean. the fresh ground water flows from in land areas towards the coast where elevation and groundwater level are lower because salt water has higher content of dissolved salt and minerals. it denser the fresh water, causing it to have hydraulic head than freshwater. hydraulic head refers to the liquid pressure exerted by water column. the higher pressure density of salt water cause it to move into costal aquifiers in a wedge shape under the freshwater. the salt water and fresh water meets in a transition zone where mixing occurs through dispersion and diffusion.

Developing countries are experiencing rapid and unguided urbanization which may contribute to increase poverty. Managing rapid urbanization is crucial for sustainable development. The main purpose of this article is to explore the determinants, trend and status of urbanization and counter-urbanization in South Asia. The effects of urbanization and counter urbanization has influence on land use pattern and real estate planning in South Asia. Urbanization in South Asia provides opportunities for education, employment, better housing, updated technology transfer, markets for agricultural products and better physical treatment facilities by gathering well educated and skilled people. While the urbanization is increasing gradually in most of the megacities in South Asia but the trend of counter urbanization is less than the urbanization. The paper concluded with some policy recommendations including public-private partnership for sustainable urban development in South Asia.

Outsourcing Violence in South Asia:More a Low-Risk Certitude Than a Gamble for the State Rashmi Singh (bio) The United States has been the undisputed military power in the world for quite some time. However, this enormous military advantage has not allowed it to succeed in its quest to combat the transnational maneuvers of groups like al Qaeda and, more recently, the Islamic State. Indeed, although the U.S. government had wanted Osama bin Laden since at least 1999, it took the world's most powerful country nearly ten years after the September 11 attacks to track down and kill al Qaeda's elusive leader. In short, military prowess, despite a state's best efforts, may not be the answer to addressing the dynamic and mobile threat posed by nonstate actor violence. To achieve strategic objectives, nations have begun to rely on unofficial, nonstate armed groups. We see this in the case of states seeking to realize their foreign policy aims as well as secure specific domestic objectives. However, given that the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence is a core characteristic of the modern state, outsourcing violence is both seemingly incongruous and an inherently risky endeavor. Outsourcing carries the risk not only of undermining state legitimacy and prestige but also of creating conditions that augment grievances and fuel violence and conflict rather than achieve peace. This is the foundation of Yelena Biberman's argument in her timely new book Gambling with Violence: State Outsourcing of War in Pakistan and India, in which she addresses the key questions of why governments around the world delegate to informal proxies as well as why nonstate actors, in turn, choose to align themselves with state interests. Biberman argues that even militarily superior states often lack the strategic reach at the local level, which is why indigenous nonstate partners are recruited to provide access on the ground. She also stresses that these local assets are "not mere puppets" (p. 2) but instead exercise agency and possess their own sets of interests. [End Page 185] Arguably, the book's most important contribution is the theoretical model it constructs to explain the alliance between states and nonstate actors. Drawing on insights from structural and neoclassical realism, Biberman proposes a "balance of interests" model whereby civil wartime alliances between states and nonstate actors are the product of both power and interests. States rarely use local nonstate actors when the local balance of power is in their favor; instead, they tend toward such alliances either when insurgents have an advantage in the conflict or when the local balance of power is roughly equal. It is in these circumstances that local proxies augment the state's "tactical benefits" (p. 11) by, for instance, providing local knowledge, acting as force multipliers, or facilitating the use of selective violence by the state. Yet, given the state's relative weakness, this is also precisely when local proxies are the most "unwilling to assume the risks of collaboration" (p. 12) with it. Not all proxies are created equal, however, and Biberman distinguishes between two main types of local nonstate partners: the "activists" and the "opportunists." The former, she argues, tend to be driven much more by ideals and identity than material gain. As long as they are convinced that an alliance serves their long-term interests, activists will partner with a state—even if it is losing. Opportunists, on the other hand, are the "balance tippers" who "prioritize the immediate material payoffs of collaboration, be it protection or patronage" (pp. 11–12). As such, they are only interested in entering into a partnership when the local balance of power either favors the state or is roughly equal. Having constructed this model, Biberman then dedicates the bulk of the book to operationalizing it through a series of case studies drawn mainly from South Asia. Over the course of three chapters, she guides us through a series of historical and more contemporary examples. The first case is Pakistan's outsourcing of violence to different Islamist and non-Islamist militias in East Pakistan in 1971. With the balance of power roughly equal, the Pakistani army first recruited 40,000–50,000 "irregular volunteers," or...

Abstract. This article examines the conceptualization and application of climate change as a "threat multiplier" in global security discourse. Originating within the U.S. national security community, the term describes how the physical impacts of climate change interact with and exacerbate pre-existing social, economic, and political vulnerabilities, thereby multiplying threats to peace and stability. While the framework has been instrumental in placing climate change on the security agenda, it is also critiqued for potentially constraining policy responses to a reactive, management-oriented posture rather than promoting transformative change. This study employs a qualitative, comparative case study methodology to deconstruct the threat multiplier effect through its cascading impacts. It first analyzes the first-order impact of climate change on critical resources, with a focus on water stress in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It then investigates the second-order human consequence of climate-induced migration, examining patterns in the Sahel, Bangladesh, and Central America, and highlighting the profound legal and geopolitical challenges posed by the lack of international protection for "climate refugees." Finally, through in-depth case studies of Syria and Sudan, the article analyzes how these combined pressures can culminate in the third-order outcome of political instability and violent conflict. The analysis reveals that governance is the critical mediating variable determining whether climate stress leads to instability. The article concludes by assessing the policy responses of the United Nations, European Union, and the United States, identifying key gaps, and advocating for an integrated policy framework that merges climate adaptation, development, and peacebuilding to address the multifaceted nature of climate-related security risks.

The IWT's long-standing transboundary water cooperation, which has successfully endured wars, political hostility, and shifting regimes between India and Pakistan, now stands at a critical crossroads. The hydro-political landscape of South Asia is transforming, and India’s upstream control and perception often fuels suspicion and securitization. The conflict amplifies during a military crisis when water emerges as a source of sovereignty and strategic leverage. Environmental security is deeply linked to regional stability through shared ecological risks and interdependencies. Climate change acts as a threat multiplier by exacerbating existing water insecurities and geopolitical. The intersection of climate change, regional stability, and hydro-politics represents a critical nexus in international relations. In the South Asian region, IWT has long served as a diplomatic anchor between India and Pakistan. However, rising environmental uncertainty and political mistrust have revived old anxieties. Therefore, the theoretical framework draws upon securitization theory, the Hydro-hegemony framework, environmental geopolitics, and realism to interpret how climate change stress is reshaping water resource management in the South Asian region. In the context of accelerating climate change, increasing hydro-political competition, and rising strategic anxiety in South Asia, this paper critically examines the evolving dynamics of hydro-politics in the Indus Basin, analyzing how climatic stressors—such as glacial melt, unpredictable monsoons, and shifting river flows—are intensifying perceptions of water insecurity and transforming the region’s geopolitical terrain. This paper suggests that reimagining the IWT as a climate-resilient, politically insulated, and ecologically informed agreement is capable not only of reducing bilateral tensions but also of promoting long-term regional stability in South Asia.

(1994). Transformation of agriculture, food self‐sufficiency and prospects for surpluses: The case of South Asia. Contemporary South Asia: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 37-52.

Purpose The paper presents the facts on the policy challenges and opportunities in the way forward of trade and economic co-operation in South Asia amid the coronavirus disease 2019, which comes to be the least economically integrated region worldwide. Due to tense geopolitics in South Asia, trade is heavily biased toward extra-regional markets despite of existing regional trade agreements (TAs) in the region.Design/methodology/approach Having tested the stationarity of data with structural break, the paper uses intra-regional trade in addition to other domestic economic variables as exogenous regressors in autoregressive distributed lag multivariate framework, hence raising the quality of statistical inference.Findings This paper highlights that intra-regional trade significantly affects the economic welfare as measured by Gross Domestic Product per capita of the people from the region, hence raising the need for higher regional trade openness. If trade barriers are overcome, all the South Asian countries will gain through effective implementation of regional TAs.Research limitations/implications The study relies on the multivariate technique with regional trade share as the main exogenous variable. In addition, the regulatory and economic conditions of all countries are different which also tends to affect the mutual degree of trade relations.Practical implications Over the economic reasons, the manmade barriers owing to political differences are the root cause for the low intra-regional trade. Amid the pandemic, South Asian courtiers have the high time to leverage the bilateral trade for mutual benefits. India being the largest economy can play a decisive role in pushing forward the regional trade bloc – South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) – for achieving its objective through multilateral engagements in a wider perspective.Originality/value The present study makes pioneer efforts to examine the dynamic linkages between regional trade and economic growth. The results provide new insight into the dynamics of benefits driven by trade interdependency.

En los últimos años asistimos a un gran aumento de la conflictividad en torno a la defensa del agua. A pesar de que en 2010 el agua ha sido reconocida como derecho humano y cuenta con un extenso marco de protección, son muchas las vulneraciones de este derecho que se producen en el marco de proyectos extractivos, que causan gran impacto en los territorios en los que se implementan generando enfrentamiento con las comunidades y con las personas que defienden los recursos naturales. Las vulneraciones en las dimensiones del derecho al agua, como disponibilidad, acceso o calidad, se acompañan de múltiples violaciones en los derechos de las personas defensoras, que son asesinadas, perseguidas o amenazadas por la actividad que realizan, siendo muy altos los riesgos que enfrentan las mujeres defensoras, así como las comunidades indígenas. En muchos de estos proyectos se ponen en marcha mecanismos y estrategias de persecución, y criminalización que tratan de desactivar y desacreditar los movimientos colectivos, en un marco de impunidad de las empresas y complicidad de instituciones del estado. La gran conflictividad en torno a la defensa del agua evidencia que los marcos y mecanismos de protección del derecho frente a la actuación de muchas empresas resultan insuficientes. Ante la falta de mecanismos de protección efectivos por parte de los estados y las violaciones cometidas por muchas empresas transnacionales en el marco del extractivismo hídrico, también han ido surgiendo proyectos de resistencia y de defensa en los territorios, que han ido articulando la lucha y la defensa por los derechos al agua, poniendo en valor los significados del agua, nuevas narrativas y alternativas en torno a otros modelos de organización y relación con la naturaleza. Las propuestas y miradas de estos movimientos deben ser tenidas en cuenta para avanzar en las reflexiones y análisis que van configurando el marco de defensa en torno al derecho al agua y con ello también, la conceptualización de este derecho. Se hace un análisis del marco normativo de protección del derecho al agua y de los derechos de las personas que defienden los recursos naturales, seguido de un análisis de la realidad a través de informes que evidencian la vulneración de este derecho, mostrando con ello las debilidades del sistema de protección y la necesidad de mecanismos vinculantes. Por último, se analiza todo otro marco de defensa del agua, diferente al del derecho, que emerge desde los territorios a partir de los proyectos de resistencia colectiva que al mismo tiempo son alternativa y muestran otra forma de relación y organización del agua y el territorio. Para el desarrollo de este artículo se han tenido en cuenta investigaciones previas en distintos países de América Latina, concretamente en Guatemala, El Salvador o México, contrastadas con numerosas fuentes primarias y secundarias procedentes de resoluciones e informes internacionales, así como distintos análisis de estos últimos años. Por ello, muchas de las reflexiones se ilustran y ejemplifican a través de casos concretos, que han sido previamente investigados y documentados.

Climate change, also called global warming, refers to the rise in the average surface temperature on Earth. Over the past century, earth's average temperature has risen by 1.5°F, and is projected to rise 0.5 to 8.6°F over the next hundred years. These changes in the average temperature of the earth may lead to potentially dangerous shifts in climate and weather. Increased rainfall, decreased precipitation, augmented temperature, frequent heat waves, droughts and floods have likely to pose challenges for economic, social and geo-political security of states. Present study is an effort to understand the impacts produced by changing climate in social, economic and political spheres and its link with the emergence of violent conflicts. It further aims to investigate the relationship between National Security and Conflict however the main focus will be the domestic societies of under-developing countries. In order to address the objectives of this study, descriptive research approach has been applied. The validity of concept has been tested by qualitative analysis of the climatic variations on economic, social and geo-political spheres. The study finds out that climate change and economic stability are inextricably linked. The data of this study also suggested that the impacts of climate change are expected to act as a ''Threat Multiplier '' as a whole and can be more disastrous for the unstable regions thus resulting in shortage of food, water and other resources. It is thus concluded that scenario may lead to increased risks of conflicts among nations for control over the natural resources though climate change is unlikely to be a primary cause of conflict however it will remain an important factor in the emergence of conflict and it may also amplify the existing conflicts due to scarcity of resources.

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