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90 Peace and Security Review Vol.1, No.2, Second Quarter, 2008 making on world security, and share greater responsibility for own security and managing strategic need. These strategic exigencies emanate from terrorism, which by all count is the biggest challenge that the world is facing at the moment. Also important is the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan or flashing out the hot-spots of terror such as Kashmir, Tamil issue in Sri Lanka and tribal unrest in the North of India and East of Bangladesh. However, regional involvement in these matters while more effective than international would be impeded by India’s alignment with the USA. VI. CONCLUSION Regionalism has been a catch-word in contemporary political vocabulary, yet different regions have attained different levels of success over the past decades. While in Europe it has taken a formal existence, in other regions such as South Asia, attaining the same level of success has remained problematic. As a result integration between states in South Asia has remained markedly low. South Asia’s future with regionalism has been affected by two conditions. On the one hand, its history is riddled with psychological trauma generated and passed on to its contemporary life by the partition of British India in 1947. The partition, although sixty years have passed by, permeates specific forms of hostilities between states internalising them as irreducible and permanent. The peculiar psychology of division and accompanying hatred controls human movement, defines ethical and moral standpoints of individuals, and national security issues. As a result, various pockets of conflict that South Asia is riddled with find legitimation in the name of community and religion. Promotion of normative projects such as regional organisation, free trade, collective self-reliance, and common security is hampered by the social and political wreckage carried over from its tumultuous past. On the other hand, a crucial point in regionalism debate has been the asymmetric nature of South Asia. Compared to India most other nation states lie on the fringe. India’s galloping developmental pace has created new problems for intra-regional relationship. Most states in South Asia unlike India have not been able to overcome the weight of colonially inherited systems and remain economically backward. The asymmetry is so extensive that inter state relationship has acquired a centre-periphery pattern whereby the structural division of wealth and labour has acquired a relation of dependency. India’s military power also adds to this asymmetry. Asymmetry manifests in the governance of South Asian countries. The salience of a regime with open and liberal economy (Kindleberger, 1976) is crucial in curbing out a strong independent region as the classics of international relations confirm. However, Vol.1, No.2 2008 pp.77-93
Badrul A. Khan South Asia and Regionalism 91 most South Asian states apart from India lack “any established bourgeoisie hegemony” (Cox, 1987: 218) and hence remains politically vulnerable to nondemocratic and dictatorial rule. It however seems paradoxical that despite deep asymmetry no hegemonic power has come to exist in South Asia. This has negatively impacted on regionalisation because initiating and maintaining economic and political institutions, designed to deliver collective good have faced significant obstruction. India’s long held policy of non-alignment and refusal to commit to a policy of engagement with either of the super powers during the cold war have contributed to this keeping India oblivious to regional need. This had also provided a leeway for other regional powers particularly China to cash in and exert its influence over those countries. Although South Asia has become one of the key areas of the world system since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the abrupt end it brought to the politics of cold war, as the backwater of global politics it is turning into a site of great game involving the USA and China. This has been made possible by the USA ⎯ India strategic partnership that materialised after a dramatic shift in USA policy towards India. India-USA alliance will fail to involve other regional countries in all major issues that concern and influence global politics such as the issues of Islamic militancy, nuclear and missile proliferation; global trade and drugs, illicit arms and human migration. However, the prospect of regionalism in the longer term is not too gloomy. One example of liberal pragmatism is the SAFTA signed in Islamabad at the 12 th Summit meeting in 2004. The implementation of the Free Trade Agreement may still be sketchy on how it will overcome the nontariff barriers and trade documentation issues but it has the potential to bring profound change into areas of trade, finance and indeed regionalisation. References Ahmad, Qazi, K. 2007. “Towards an inclusive globalisation,” in The Daily Star, 11 January. Ayoob, Mohammed. 1999. “From regional system to regional society: exploring key variables in the construction of regional order.” Canberra, Department of International Relations, The Australian National University, Fiftieth Anniversary Lecture, April. Balibar, E. 2002. “What is border?” in Politics and the other Scene. New York: Verso, pp. 75-85. Batra, N.D. 2006. “Manmohan Singh: Nucelar deal takes an initial step,” in Asia Media, 4 October. Vol.1, No.2 2008 pp.77-93
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