Development of order in South Asia: towards a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Parliament
Title:
Development of order in South Asia: towards a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Parliament
Author:
Paranjpe, Shrikant
Appeared in:
Contemporary South Asia
Paging:
Volume 11 (2002) nr. 3 pages 345-356
Year:
2002-11
Contents:
South Asia appears to be confronted with several issues that dominate the debate on the emergent order in the region; the question of hegemony and the legitimacy of the use of force, the issue of bilateralism and the question of order from the perspective of civil society. Traditionally, two competing frameworks have dominated South Asian security thinking. The first uses the liberal institutional framework, and the second set is rooted in a realist/neorealist framework of analysis. In the future, the agenda for South Asia needs to be set at two levels; a bilateral level of India and Pakistan, and a regional level of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), The former would be a continuous dialog based on confidence-building techniques, while the latter would have to follow an institutional line. The proposed new institutional arrangement is that of a South Asian regional parliament. A SAARC parliament offers new types of political interaction that would be an important condition for increasing transactions, linkages and coalitions. It can go beyond the bureaucratic-technical parameters of SAARC and introduce political, moral, cultural and civilisational dimensions of regionalism in South Asia.
Journal description