Cooperation In South Asia Research Articles

Forty Years of Cooperation in South Asia: A Legal Appraisal of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (saarc)

Abstract Last August marked the 40th anniversary of the start of interstate cooperation in South Asia which has been characterised by few lights and many shadows over the years. saarc has not been able to smooth out tensions between its Member States, rather it has fallen victim to them, nor has it contributed realistically to the economic and social development of the region. This paper aims to offer an in-depth analysis of saarc in a legal perspective. In particular, its Charter, its secondary law, and its practice will be investigated through the lens of the theoretical framework of international institutional law in order to ascertain if saarc meets the requirements that are commonly believed to characterise international organizations.

Space diplomacy? India’s new regional policy under Modi and the “South Asia Satellite”

ABSTRACT India’s space program has for long been seen as an underexploited source of its foreign policy and diplomacy. However, there are grounds to support that this has changed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reflected in his proposal for the “South Asia Satellite” as India’s “gift” to its neighboring countries in line with his “neighborhood first” policy. A number of scholars and the media have celebrated the launch of the satellite as an important step toward regional integration and cooperation in South Asia through space diplomacy. Setting the South Asia Satellite in the context of India’s regional policy, this article explains why the utilization of space technology as an instrument of India’s foreign policy may be accelerating now mainly as a response to China’s growing economic and political impact on the region, which also involves the establishment of closer space ties between China and India’s neighbors.

Contemporary India – Sri Lanka Relations in Post-COVID Pandemic Period

India’s foreign policy under the Narendra Modi government has been focused on rebuilding cooperation in South Asia. The Indian foreign policy has been restructured as ‘Neighborhood First,’ which primarily plans to strengthen relations with its South Asian neighbours. In this context, India -Sri Lanka relations have been considered by scholars in South Asian politics in recent times. Relations between both countries during the immediate post-civil war period deteriorated with some better experiences. However, relations have been progressing since 2015 in the context of changing new governments in both countries. This paper examines the contemporary relations between India and Sri Lanka in the post-COVID pandemic era. The research paper is based on secondary data from books and journal articles in the relevant disciplines. Further, recent data was collected from printed and electronic media reports. The collected data were analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method. The economic crisis in Sri Lanka faced many adversities in the country. In this context, India offered her cooperation to rebuild the collapsed economy in Sri Lanka. India extended her financial and humanitarian assistance to the government of Sri Lanka. In addition, India signed some bilateral cooperation pacts in investment projects on energy, economic, development, and cultural relations by enhancing the relations between the two countries and the people-to-people of both countries. In addition, official visits of the two premiers during times of crisis in Sri Lanka initiated mutual relations again. It was proved that India was keen to initiate her policy of ‘Neighborhood First” towards her immediate maritime neighbour.

Evaluating the Impact of Cross Border Tourism and People to People Contact on the Regional Cooperation in South Asia: A Study of India and Bangladesh

ABSTRACT In these early decades of the 21st century, one of the most severe difficulties facing citizens worldwide is the task of peacefully coexisting with others in all spheres of personal and public life. This study explores whether cross-border tourism enhances the regional cooperation between the two South Asian countries of India and Bangladesh. The mediating role of people-to-people contact is also investigated. A total of 265 completed questionnaire sets, using convenient sampling, were collected through an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approach were used to put the suggested model through its steps and provide empirical support for the hypotheses. The results indicate that the expansion of cross-border tourism, bilateral trade, and people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh has a favorable effect on their cross-border cooperation. The findings also show that cooperation between the countries is attributed to people-to-people contact in combination with cross-border tourism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is an introductory study to uncover the vital significance of cross-border tourism in bridging the nations through cross-border tourism by incorporating people-to-people contact. The findings have ramifications for policymakers, planners, and government authorities attempting to enhance people-to-people communication for improved diplomatic connections.

Strengthening Peace and Economic Cooperation in South Asia

Conflict resolution proponents consider economic integration the silver bullet. Politically stable states in Europe and Southeast Asia are currently united under a single flag. While "monetary inclusion" is sometimes cited as a means toward stability, this is not always the case. But a unified currency is not necessarily the key to peaceful coexistence. This article will examine South Asia to see if and how much monetary settlement has aided in maintaining peace in that region. Despite attempts to bring nations together in South Asia through peace and monetary reconciliation, these efforts have been mostly ignored. Entombment and interstate strife are major contributors to this problem. While this article focuses on provincial financial partnerships as a means of promoting development and peace in South Asia, it argues that the legacy of state structures in the region effectively preempts any such provincial involvement. The religious and socioeconomic tensions that fuel the political turmoil in South Asia portend a bleak future for the area. In light of recent events, it would appear that praying for a peaceful synthesis and permanent peace in South Asia through reconciliation is naive.

Governance Challenges of South Asia’s Energy Megaprojects

ABSTRACT For the first time since the end of British colonisation in 1947, the poorly integrated and politically volatile region of South Asia is about to embark on the development of several multilateral energy megaprojects. Historically, regional energy cooperation in South Asia has been undermined by a range of geopolitical issues. Political developments in the last decade have faciliated an unprecedented level of cooperation on energy, and currently several multilateral pipelines and hydroelectric projects are at advanced stages of implementation. Yet, the progress in the physical and bureaucratic development of energy projects has not been complemented by a corresponding conceptualisation of the governance challenges of these initiatives. Within academic literature, there is a dearth of studies that analyses the critical aspect of collectively governing the proposed and under-construction energy megaprojects in South Asia. This gap is concerning as the complexity of energy megaprojects and weak governance systems in developing countries can lead to enormous economic, social and environmental externalities. This article aims to identify the governance challenges of South Asia’s energy megaprojects. To this end, the article draws on literature on global energy governance and energy megaprojects and primary data from interviews undertaken with policymakers. The article synthesises literature on energy cooperation in South Asia with existing knowledge on megaprojects and global energy governance. In doing so, the paper addresses one of the key gaps in literature, which is the lack of studies that appraises megaprojects in the context of interactions between domestic and international politics. Due to the growing importance of energy megaprojects to regional integration and energy transition, the findings of this article have relevance towards policies on global governance and sustainable development.

“One Belt One Road” Initiative of China: Promotion of Bi/Multilateral Regional Cooperation in South Asia

The concept of “One Belt One Road” is initiated by People’s Republic of China which could be a foundational basis of development in the region. The ideas reflected in the presentations of an international seminar, entitled “Exploring Issues on Trans Himalayan Cooperation”, organized by Trans Himalayan Research Centre (THRC) of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FOHSS) at Tribhuvan University (TU) on 21 May 2016. Based on the presentations of scholars from Nepal, China and Korea this paper, based on the presentations of the seminar, further argues that the One Belt One Road initiative will not only be “Connecting the peoples along the One Belt One Road routes” but also promoting multilateral regional cooperation in future strengthening South Asian regional cooperation. It eventually promotes Bi/Multilateral Regional Cooperation in South Asia taking into consideration that connectivity is key that connects different regions within and outside nations. However, connectivity alone is not enough and there is necessary to develop corridor to contribute economic development of country. It is therefore necessary to promote various kinds of bi/multilateral regional cooperation for the development of Trans Himalaya region of South Asia.

Terrorism Situation and Counter-Terrorism Police Cooperation in South Asia and Southeast Asia

New changes of terrorism situation in South Asia and Southeast Asia could be seen from the increase of numbers of terrorist attacks, the increase retaliatory terrorist attacks and the increase of the combined risks and linkage effects of terrorism and other non-traditional security issues. The terrorist threat in South Asia and Southeast Asia is expected to continue in the near future because the threats severely posed by the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, the interaction and allying of terrorist organizations and terrorists’ exploitation of advanced technology. However, the practice of counter-terrorism police cooperation in South Asia and Southeast Asia was weak and fragile due to the poor performance of ASEAN counter-terrorism cooperation, the police cooperation within the framework of international organizations and cooperation at the bilateral and small multilateral level has not really meet the current challenges. The solutions offered in this paper are 4 ways to improve counter-terrorism police cooperation in South Asia and Southeast Asia: build a comprehensive and efficient counter-terrorism police cooperation mechanism, a stable and practical coordination mechanism, a joint counter-terrorism intelligence fusion center, a quality and level counter-terrorism police training mechanism of South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Policy challenges and testing the scope for regional trade integration – a case of South Asia

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.

INDO-ISRAEL STRATEGIC COOPERATION: CHALLENGES AND IMPLICATIONS ON PAKISTAN

This research work attempts to evaluate the Indo-Israel strategic cooperation in South Asia and the resultant security challenges and threats for Pakistan due to this partnership. Security dilemma has been used to explain the hostile arms race between India and Pakistan and why India is strengthening its strategic ties with Israel. In addition, in-depth strategic cooperation and the nature of Indo-Israel relations give the understanding about the defense cooperation existing between Tel Aviv and New Delhi. Even though there have been several obstacles to furthering their military ties, these factors have not been drastic enough to impact the defense and strategic relations between the two nations. The methodology of this research is based on the qualitative research method. This method is based on descriptive, historical, and explanatory approaches towards the concepts, issues, concerns, and strategies. Keywords: Israel- India, Strategic partnership, Pakistan, South Asia, Cooperation

Regional integration and environmental sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from South Asia.

South Asia, a sub‐region with nearly a third of the world's population living in extreme poverty and hunger, has been affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic in an unprecedented way. The pandemic has undermined the progress achieved by the subregion towards attaining sustainable development goals. This study argues that fostering environmental sustainability in the South Asian region is crucial to “Building Back Better” while taking cognisance of future climate‐related risks. With the low level of preparedness, the collapse of global supply chains, and restrictive regional integration, the individual country in the region lacks the fiscal and technical capacity to implement sustainable development goals effectively. Therefore, based on the analytical approach to regional integration, this paper explores the potential role of regional integration in ensuring environmental sustainability in South Asia. Additionally, this study illustrates how the COVID‐19 pandemic has affected several environmental aspects at the regional level, such as clean energy, disaster risk reduction, and waste management, and shows how regional cooperation can address these challenges post pandemic. While previous studies mainly focus on regional integration in the European Union, this study targets the crucial importance of regional cooperation in South Asia in achieving environmental sustainability.

Neo-Realist Paradigm and the Fragile State of Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Prospects and Challenges

Regionalism is a process of regional cooperation amongst the countries sharing a common border, common values, homogeneity of culture, and common vested interests. While the western world adopted this paradigm early after World War II in the form of the EU, South Asian Region is still deprived of such models. The establishment of SAARC in 1985 by the efforts of the late Bangladeshi President Zia-ur-Rahman although raised certain hopes of regional connectivity in South Asia still the fate of this region lingers in the sky. While using secondary sources of data collection, this paper tries to attempt the underlying challenges and the palpable prospects responsible for the better integration of this region. It further analyses the failed regional cooperation and the role of India under the assumption of the Neo-Realist Paradigm of Kenneth Waltz that emerged in late 1970.

Energy Cooperation in South Asia: Utilising Natural Resources for Peace and Sustainable Development

Energy Cooperation in South Asia: Utilising Natural Resources for Peace and Sustainable Development

Mirza Sadaqat Huda, Energy Cooperation in South Asia: Utilizing Natural Resources for Peace and Sustainable Development

Mirza Sadaqat Huda, <i>Energy Cooperation in South Asia: Utilizing Natural Resources for Peace and Sustainable Development</i>

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

From South Asia to the world: embracing the challenge of global sustainable nitrogen management

Hydro-energy cooperation in South Asia: Prospects for transboundary energy and water security

The last decade has witnessed rapid progress in energy cooperation between the countries of the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) sub-region. Cooperation has been bilateral, with each of the countries entering into separate energy development and trade agreement with India, broadly similar to the water sector where national governments engage bilaterally on transboundary cooperation and dispute resolution. A more recent wave of electrical grid interconnections and hydro-energy cooperation has emerged with governments increasingly shifting from bilateral to multilateral energy-sharing agreements. This trend holds considerable potential for regional transboundary water governance. Based on documentary and media analysis along with interviews of key BBIN policy-makers, we identify and examine in this paper four factors for future progress: 1) technical cooperation can be extended to information-sharing for policies and institutions to regulate and manage water resources; 2) India must seize the opportunities and benefits of enhanced regional leadership in the region; 3) simultaneous informal discussion and diplomatic negotiation of water, energy and their nexus can provide BBIN countries the opportunity to highlight potential gains of cooperation and interstate interdependencies; and 4) regional cooperation can give a strong impetus to nations for advancing structural reforms, building institutions and capacity, developing a shared knowledge base, bridging infrastructural gaps, attracting private sector participation, and addressing poverty alleviation goals including job creation.

Regional Cooperation in South Asia: Exploring the Three Pillars of Regionalism and their Relevance

The lofty ideals penned by the heads of the South Asian states at the birth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) reflect a vision for promoting mutual trust and understanding in South Asia. But the member states have fallen into the intricate web of power balancing games, fluctuating economic growth and volatile ethnic and religious conditions that has marred the potential gains from regionalism. In such a scenario, while SAARCs snail-like progress continues without any remarkable achievements, there has been a rise of new regional organizations that has not only renewed our attention towards economic liberalization and the benefits accrued from multilateral economic cooperation but has also put into question the fundamentals of regionalism. The paper situates regionalism in acts of cooperation that are not isolated and discrete from each other but rather form a pattern of interconnecting expectations about the future of the alliance and the assumptions on legitimate activities. The paper argues that regionalism is a multi-faceted task and involves political harmony, economic interdependence and common identity as the three pillars. But regionalism in South Asia encourages economic interdependence and proscribes political integration and common values and norms. As a result, the attempts at regionalism in South Asia are conceptually narrow, limited in agenda and inadequate to address the issues of regional peace and security.

Challenges to Regional Cooperation in South Asia: An Overview

The devastating effects of the Second World War significantly affected states, their resources and the overall balance of peace. As a result, states began to search for a new model that would not only promote and expand trade but would also contribute to world peace. Since the 1980s there has been an increase in regional cooperative projects all over the world. The concept of regional cooperation revolves around the idea that states in a shared geographical space cooperate with each other in order to achieve goals that go beyond the capacity of individual national attainment. Regional cooperation eventually found its place in South Asia. As a result, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in 1985 and the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement came into force in 2006. Despite these mechanisms, regional cooperation remained relatively low. Both economic and non-economic factors are responsible for this situation. Factors that range from tariff and non-tariff barriers to physical connectivity to asymmetric power relations and security concerns have served as obstacles to achieve regional cooperation in South Asia. In order to overcome these barriers, South Asian states must maintain flexibility in dealing with highly political issues in order to make way for regional growth and economic development.

An assessment of opportunities and challenges for cross-border electricity trade for Bangladesh using SWOT-AHP approach

Regional electricity cooperation in South Asia, especially between Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal (BBIN), has been under debate recently. Recent discussions have gone beyond bilateral electricity trade to regional or tripartite trade. With limited energy resources and rapidly rising demand, cross-border electricity trade has been viewed as an alternative source of cleaner and lower price electricity supply in the long-term alongside domestic generation in Bangladesh. In this context, this study identifies barriers and opportunities for electricity trading for Bangladesh, focusing on the stakeholders’ perceptions. Theses stakeholder are representatives of public organizations in the power sector, Independent Power Producers, academia, geopolitical experts and research institutes. A well-structured SWOT analysis, in combination with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), is used to identify the SWOT factors and subsequently rank them. Our analysis shows that the weaknesses and threats are more pronounced than strengths and opportunities for electricity trade from the viewpoint of Bangladesh. Several possible strategies are proposed to overcome the hindrances. Among the proposed strategies, a key strategy is the signing of a trilateral electricity trading agreement with joint development and implementation of cross-border power projects. However, to achieve these strategies, it will require meticulous planning, political will, and visionary leadership across BBIN sub-region.

Lessons from the European Union’s Economic Integration for South Asian Regionalism

South Asian regionalism—mainly represented by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)—has always been vulnerable to the influence of the long-standing bilateral disputes, and South Asian intra-regional trade and economic cooperation is limited. This article examines economic integration in Europe, from the 1950s to Britain’s decision to exit from the European Union (EU) in 2016, in order to identify possible lessons for the SAARC. In particular, this article makes use of Gürler’s model of economic integration to propose a way forward for economic cooperation through the SAARC. While the full implementation of the EU’s model of economic integration appears to be a distant reality for the SAARC, this article argues that a revitalized SAARC is nonetheless a suitable vehicle for pursuing a gradual process of economic cooperation in South Asia that may ultimately lead not only to economic integration but also the resolution of political disputes.