South Asia: Envisioning a Regional Future

About the Book

This volume includes a collection of papers contributed by eminent scholars and analysts from the South Asian region on how they visualise South Asia a decade hence. This was primarily motivated b the desire to think collectively about our regional future in terms of issues that challenges the region and the individuals states; how the external powers' presence in this region affects it; and the role of regional institutional mechanisms in fostering cooperation and greater economic integration in a globalised world, where connectivity is a key.

It is recognised that the region suffers from several constraints that has made common challenges difficult to address; nevertheless, there is an optimism that the region will move forward steadily albeit slowly, to evolve a common agenda, and shape a regional identity that would form the bedrock of any cooperative endeavour.

Contents

List of Abbreviations
About the Contributors

Introduction
Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of Cooperation
-- Smruti S Pattanaik

SECTION I

Forging Regional Consensus

1. South Asia 2020: Moving towards Cooperation or Conflict?
-- Nirupama Rao

2. South Asia in the Next Decade: A Futuristic Perspective
-- Arvind Gupta

3. South Asian Regional Security Architecture: Between Anarchy and Order
-- Sujit Dutta

4. Dealing with Terrorism: Can there be a Regional Approach?
-- Shahedul Anam Khan

5. Changing Pattern of Security Threats: Imperatives for Realignment
-- Kaiser Bengali and Nausheen Wasi

6. South Asia between Co-operation and Conflict: Globalisation, and Violent Peace
-- Darini Rajasingham Senanayake

7. Transboundary Rivers in South Asia: Source of Cooperation or Conflict?
-- Uttam Kumar Sinha

SECTION II

Domestic Politics and the Future of South Asia

8. Democratic State-Building as an Effective and Enduring Conflict Resolution Strategy for Afghanistan
-- Davood Moradian

9. The Tamil National Question in Sri Lanka: Current Dynamics and Future Trends
-- Sumanasiri Liyanage

10. Federalising the Nepali State Challenges and Opportunities
-- Krishna P. Khanal

11. Radicalisation of Civil Society: A Case Study of Pakistan
-- Tahmina Rashid

12. South Asia in 2020: A Maldives Perspective
-- Ibrahim Hussain Zaki

SECTION III

Extra-Regional Powers and Regional Security

13. Extra-Regional Powers and their Interest in Nepal
-- Nishchal N. Pandey

14. The Afghanistan Conundrum: Regionalising the Peace Effort
-- Ahmad Shayeq Qassem

15. Extra-Regional Powers and the Emerging Security Scenario in South Asia
-- Rajesh Rajagopalan

16. China’s South Asian Policy: From Bilateral to Multilateral
-- Swaran Singh

SECTION IV

Forging Regional Cooperation: The Way Ahead

17. Does SAARC have a Future?
-- Smruti S. Pattanaik

18. Regional Economic Integration and SAFTA: What does it Portend?
-- Nitya Nanda and Souvik Bhattacharjya

19. Regional Transport Connectivity: Getting Past the Impediments
-- M. Rahmatullah

Index

How to order

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