SOUTH ASIAN REGIONAL COOPERATION A SOCIO-ECONOMIC APPROACH TO PEACE AND STABILITY

Published in the wake of SAARC’s founding momentum, this book argues that South Asia’s pathway to durable peace runs through practical, measurable socio-economic cooperation that improves daily life across borders. Contributors map the political economy of the region’s trade and production structures, exposing high logistics costs, tariff peaks, rules-of-origin frictions and thin standards capacity that keep markets fragmented. They examine opportunities for cross-border power trade, multimodal transport corridors, agricultural value chains and fisheries management in shared waters, showing how even modest coordination could lower prices, raise reliability and reduce crisis volatility. Social sectors receive equal weight: disease surveillance, disaster early warning, mutual credit recognition in higher education and cultural exchanges that normalize mobility. Case studies contrast rhetorical summitry with “deliverables that count”—days saved at borders, outage hours avoided through grid interconnections, perishables preserved via cold chains, and students placed in recognized programs. The volume is frank about constraints—trust deficits, domestic veto players, thin secretariats—but proposes minilateral projects within a South Asian frame so willing partners can move, measure and invite others. By translating grand aims into executable tasks with verification and clear timelines, the book offers a citizen-facing blueprint for transforming regionalism from episodic performance into routine problem-solving.