SAARC in India's Foreign Policy Calculus

Abstract

This chapter looks at the changing facets of India’s engagement with The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) especially in the wake of the second wave of regionalism in the 1990s. It examines SAARC’s performance in the areas of security and economy in the light of the notions of ‘security community’ and ‘new regionalism’. During the early years of SAARC, India’s disposition towards the organization was at best lukewarm. The ‘new regionalism’ which largely accounts for proliferation of regional groupings in the current phase of globalization has fuelled fresh expectations of SAARC evolving into a vibrant regional organization. The notion of new regionalism rests on the assumption that economic cooperation induced by the logic of free trade within a region leads to a ‘thick web of interdependence’ among the partner countries. The chapter concludes with some observations on the relevance of SAARC in India’s foreign policy calculations.