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The detail version of this paper is available in printed form at BILIA. Email: bilia222.info@gmail.com.
Noor Mohammad Sarker works as a Research Assistant for International Affairs in Bangladesh Institute
of Law and International Affairs (BILIA). Email: nmsrdu@gmail.com
1
Regionalism in international relations refers to the integration of a number of states, located in a certain
geographical region, based on their common identity or the sense of collective actions. The process of
integration often expressed through institutional mechanisms. For details, see, Edward D. Mans. eld. and
Helen V. Milner, The New Wave of Regionalism, International Organization, Vol. 53, No. 3, Summer
1999, pp. 589627, available at: http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci243b/readings/v0002093.pdf;
Louise Fawcett, Regionalism in World Politics: Past and Present, in Regionalism in World Politics:
Regional Organization and International Order, edited by Louise LEstrange Fawcett and Andrew
Hurrell, Oxford University Press, UK, 1995, available at: http://www.garnet-eu.org/pdf/Fawcett1.pdf;
Mary E. Burfisher, Sherman Robinson and Karen Thierfelder, Regionalism: Old and New, Theory and
Practice, MTID Discussion Paper, No. 65, International Food Policy Research Institute, USA, February
2004, available at: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/16137/1/mt040065.pdf
2
Kishore C. Dash, Regionalism in South Asia: Negotiating cooperation, institutional structures, Routledge,
New York, 2008, pp. 1-2.
3
India is the key regional power in South Asia. It has either land or maritime borders with all the SAARC
countries, except Afghanistan. Therefore, the country aspires the regional leadership and, in the way, key
responsibility of regional security and development.
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Neo-realists make use of the concept of hegemony to describe a condition of the world or the regional or
the sub-regional politics in which one state is in a dominant position over the others. For details, see, Jill
Steans, Lloyd Pettiford, Thomas Diez and Imad El-Anis, An Introduction to International Relations
Theories: Perspectives and Themes, Longman, UK, 2010, pp. 53-74; see also, Scott Burchill, Andrew
Linklater & others, Theories of International Relations, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2005, pp. 29-54.
5
The term anarchy is used by neo-realists to refer to a condition in international relations where there is
no centralized sovereign authority above the states to control their behavior by enforcing the rule of law.
For details, see, Jill Steans, 2010, pp. 53-54, op. cit.; Scott Burchill, 2005, op. cit.
6
See, SAARC: Hostage to India-Pakistan conflict, Islamabad Policy Research Institute, available at:
http://ipripak.org/factfiles/ff17.shtml; Zahid Shahab Ahmed and Stuti Bhatnagar, Interstate Conflicts
and Regionalism in South Asia: Prospects and Challenges, PERCEPTIONS, Spring-Summer 2008, p. 3,
available at: http://sam.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Ahmed-Bhatnagar.pdf
7
See, Proceedings of Peoples SAARC 2007, Kathmandu, Nepal, March 23-25, 2007, p. 2, available at:
http://www.alternative-regionalisms.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/proceedings_peoples_saarc07_eng.pdf
8
Kanti Bajpai, Indian Strategic Culture, in South Asia in 2020: Future Strategic Balances and Alliances,
edited by Michael R. Chambers, USA, November 2002, p. 252; Gopal Krishna, India and International
Order: Retreat from Idealism, in The Expansion of International Society, edited by Hedley Bull and
Adam Watson, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK, 1984, pp. 270-271.
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Stephen Philip Cohen, India: Emerging Power, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2001, p. 8.
Rohan Mukherjee and David M. Malone, Indian foreign policy and contemporary security challenges,
International Affairs, Vol. 87, No. 1, 2011, p. 93; Rajen Harshe, South Asian regional cooperation:
problems and prospects, in Engaging with the world: critical reflections on Indias foreign policy,
edited by, Rajen Harshe and K. M. Seethi, Orient Black Swan, New Delhi, 2009, p. 321; David Scott,
India and regional integration, in Handbook of Indias International Relations, edited by David Scott,
Routledge, UK, 2011, p. 118; Shantanu Chakrabarti, Indias Regional Policy Making in Post Cold War
Setting, Societal Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2012, p. 409.
11
Arvind Gupta, South Asia in Indias National Security Strategy, in Grand Strategy for India: 2020 and
Beyond, edited by Krishnappa Venkatshamy and Princy George, IDSA, Pentagon Press, New Delhi,
2012, p. 186, available at: www.idsa.in/system/files/book_GrantStrategyIndia.pdf; A. K. Verma, Indias
trajectory to regional and global power: Risks, Obstacles and Strengths, Sri Lanka Guardian, June 26,
2009, available at: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/06/indias-trajectory-to-regional-and.html; V.V.
Desai, The Political Economy of Regional Cooperation in South Asia, ADB Working Paper Series on
Regional Economic Integration, No. 54, 2010, p. 26.
12
Ronen Sen, Endnote, in Neighbourhood Views of India, edited by Sharmila Joshi, Gateway House
Research Paper No. 7, December 2012, p. 95.
13
Indira Doctrine was formulated in 1983, see: http://www.sangam.org/articles/view2/446.html;
According to the Indira Doctrine, South Asian states should firstly look within the subcontinent for help
with their domestic political problems. Secondly, the presence of any extra-regional power in the
subcontinent and/or the Indian Ocean Region would be considered adverse to Indias security interests
unless that power recognized Indias predominance., quoted from Manjeet Singh Pardesi, Deducing
Indias Grand Strategy of Regional Hegemony from Historical and Conceptual Perspectives, Institute of
Defence and Strategic Studies Working Paper, No. 76, Singapore, April 2005, p. 41; for details, see:
Stephen Philip Cohen, 2001, pp. 137-138, op. cit.; see also, David Scott, 2011, p. 120, op. cit.; Bhabani
S. Gupta, The Indian Doctrine, India Today, August 31, 1983, p. 20; Devin T. Hagerty, Indias
Regional Security Doctrine, Asian Survey, Vol. 31, No. 4, 1991.
10
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Kautilya (also known as Chanakya) was an ancient Indian strategist. He was the Brahmin prime minister
of the first Mauryan emperor of the fourth century B.C. and the author of Arthasastra (The Science of
Material Gain). For details, see, Imtiaz Ahmed, State and Foreign Policy: Indias Role in South Asia,
Academic Publishers, Dhaka, 1993.
15
Imtiaz Ahmed, 1993, pp. 216-223, op. cit.; Pranay Sharma, Overcoming trust deficit, Seminar: Our
Troubled Neighborhood, Issue no. 584, April 2008.
16
Shamim Ahmed Rizvi, SAARC Summit Postponement Disappoints Member Countries, Pakistan
Economist, February 14-20, 2005.
17
Charu Lata, India and its Neighbors: Do Economic Interests have the Potential to build peace?, A
Chatham House Report in association with International Alert, The Royal Institute of International
Affairs and International Alert, October 2007, p. 8.
18
Shah Alam, SAARC in the Foreign Policy Objective of Bangladesh, in The Issues and Challenges
facing Bangladesh Foreign Policy, edited by M. G. Kabir and Shaukat Hossain, Bangladesh Society of
International Studies, Dhaka, 1989, p. 145.
19
Manisha Gunasekera, Why is SAARC not Working?, in An Exercise of Worldmaking: 2008, Institute
of Social Studies, Netherlands, 2009, p. 176.
20
See, Article X of SAARC Charter titled as General Provisions, available at: http://saarcsdmc.nic.in/pdf/charter.pdf
Page 4 of 6
M. Serajul Islam, SAARC: Still limping after a quarter century, The Daily Star, May 8, 2010.
See, Muhammad Jamshed Iqbal, SAARC: Origin, Growth, Potential and Achievements, Pakistan
Journal of History and Culture, Vol XXVII, No. 2, 2006, p. 135.
23
K.V. Kesavan, India and Community Building in Asia: From Idealism to Realism, Ritsumeikan Annual
Review of International Studies, Vol. 4, 2005, p. 17.
24
See, Ralf Emmers, Cooperative Security and the Balance of Power in ASEAN and the ARF, Routledge,
New York, 2003, pp. 1-9.
25
S.D. Muni, Strategic Architecture in South Asia: Some Conceptual Parameters, in Cooperative
Security Framework for South Asia, edited by Nihar Nayak, Pentagon Press, New Delhi, 2013, p. 7.
26
See, Dev Raj Dahal, Track II Diplomacy in South Asia: Limits and Possibilities for Regional
Cooperation, 2010, available at: http://www.nepaldemocracy.org/documents/Track%20ii_drd.pdf
27
V.V. Desai, 2010, p. 29, op. cit.
22
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28
Raghav Thapar, SAARC: Ineffective in Promoting Economic Cooperation in South Asia, Stanford
Journal of International Relations, May 24, 2006; see also: Shah Muhammad Ikhtiar Jahan Kabir,
Regionalism in South Asia: A Critique of the Functionalist Approach. Academic Press and Publishers
Library (APPL), Dhaka, 2009, p. 102.
29
See, Syed Aminul Hoque and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, SAARC Campaign Brief, available at:
http://www.equitybd.org/publication/Pubication_on_PSAARC2010/SAARC_Regional_integration.pdf
30
David Scott, 2011, p. 122, op. cit.
31
R. S. Ratna and Geetu Sidhu, Making SAFTA a Success: The Role of India, Research Report,
Commonwealth Secretariat, India, pp. 19-20, available at: http://www.thecommonwealth.org/files/
178426/FileName/SAFTA%20and%20India%20-%20Final%20doc1.pdf
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