scholarly journals The Question of "Political Will" and the Challenge of Deepening Regional Cooperation in South Asia

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Sridhar K Khatri

Journal of Political Science Vol.1(1) 1998 p.32-42

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-170
Author(s):  
John Narayan Parajuli

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of priortising health and other social and environmental issues and treating them as national security concerns. Taking a small state policy capacity approach-a small state’s ability to make informed policy decisions, this article looks at the nascent efforts being made to pursue regional cooperation in dealing with non-conventional threats in South Asia; and both implications and opportunities for Nepal to diversify its diplomatic engagement with a view to bridging its own domestic capacity gap-heightened by the pandemic. This analytical article argues that this is the right time for Nepal to reframe the issue of health and other emergencies, recalibrate the roles of its domestic institutions and diversify its diplomacy with the regional players and pivotal middle powers for building domestic capacity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habib Zafarullah ◽  
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque

Purpose With climate change and environmental degradation being major issues in the world today, it is imperative for governments within a regional setting to collaborate on initiatives, harmonize their policies and develop strategies to counter threats. In South Asia, several attempts have been made to create a common framework for action in implementing synchronized policies. However, both political and technical deterrents have thwarted moves to accommodate priorities and interests of collaborating states. The purpose of this paper is to assess these issues and existing policies/strategies in selected South Asian countries and evaluate integrated plans of action based on collaborative partnerships. Design/methodology/approach Using a broad exploratory and interpretive approach, this paper evaluates how harmonization of environmental principles and synergies among countries can help reduce the effect of climate change and environmental hazards. Based on a review of ideas and concepts as well as both primary and secondary sources, including official records, legislation, inter-state and regional agreements, evaluation reports, impact studies (social, economic and ecological), and commentaries, it highlights several initiatives and processes geared to creating environmental protection standards and practices for the South Asian region. Findings Climate change has resulted in devastating impacts on people. It contributed to the proliferation of climate refugees and high incidence of poverty in South Asia. The region faces both political and technical obstacles in developing a sustainable approach to combat climate change. This is exacerbated by non-availability of information as well as reluctance to acknowledge the problem by key actors. The best strategy will be to integrate policies and regulations in the various countries of the region to develop strategic plans. The approach of prevention and protection should replace the existing emphasis on relief and rehabilitation. Originality/value The paper provides a critical overview of the climatic and environmental problems encountered in the South Asian region and provides pointers to resolving shared problems through the use of policy instruments for regulating the problems within the gamut of regional environmental governance. It attempts to identify solutions to offset regulatory and institutional barriers in achieving preferred results by emphasizing the need for redesigning regulatory structures and policy approaches for ecological well-being.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Buddha Basnyat ◽  
Maxine Caws ◽  
Zarir Udwadia

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the most common cause of infectious disease deaths worldwide. What is perhaps less appreciated is that the caseload of tuberculosis patients in South Asia is staggering. South Asia has almost 40% of the global TB burden with 4,028,165 cases in 2015. This region also has a disproportionate share of TB deaths (681,975 deaths, 38% of the global burden). Worldwide just 12.5% of TB cases are in HIV positive individuals, but much research and investment has focused on HIV-associated TB. Only 3.5% of patients with tuberculosis in South Asia have HIV co-infection. Not surprisingly with such a huge burden of disease, this region has an estimated 184,336 multi drug resistant (MDR) cases among notified TB cases which accounts for a third of global MDR burden. Crucially, at least 70% of the estimated MDR cases remain untreated in this region and MDR treatment success ranged from only 46% for India to 88% for Sri Lanka in the 2012 cohort that received treatment. This region represents many of the drivers of the modern TB epidemic: rapid urbanization and high density populations with dramatically rising incidence of diabetes, a burgeoning and largely unregulated private sector with escalating drug resistance and high air pollution both outdoor and household. Conclusion: From bacterial biochemistry to policy implementation, we suggest ways in which South Asia can seize the opportunity lead global TB elimination by demonstrating feasibility in some of the world’s most densely populated cities and remotest reaches of the Himalayas. Clearly political will is essential, but we cannot defeat TB without understanding how to eliminate it in South Asia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
Tri Shinta

South Asia is a complex region. It is marked with the emergence and continuity of the conflict. India-Pakistan conflict is one of them. This conflict begun on 1947 and the biggest of conflict divided into three conflicts. Functionalism according to David Mitrany in “A Working Peace System” believes that Region Integration is trusted to make the conflict lower and good relation among state. This perception applied on 1985 in South Asia, which known with SAARC (The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). The fact, this conflict still continues till today. However, this paper seeks for the analysis of how’s functionalism theory explain the conflict of India-Pakistan on the regional integration: is that the conflict form an ideal integration of Sout Asia and decline the conflict, or conversely. Furthermore, the result of this research describes that Functionalism is not success on explaining South Asia integration, which means the India-Pakistan conflict still exist and the real integration among member states still not exist yet.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganeshan Wignaraja ◽  
Peter Morgan ◽  
Michael G. Plummer ◽  
Fan Zhai

Using a computable general equilibrium model, this paper estimates the potential gains from deepening integration across South Asia and Southeast Asia. If the two regions succeed in dropping inter-regional tariffs, reducing non-tariff barriers by 50 percent, and decreasing inter-regional trade costs by 15 percent—which the paper suggests are ambitious but nevertheless attainable—welfare in South Asia and Southeast Asia would rise by 8.9 percent and 6.4 percent of GDP, respectively, by 2030. Hence, we conclude that deepening South Asian regional cooperation together with building links to Southeast Asia would pay off rich dividends.


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