SAARC’s Pro-Active Track in the International System –II

July 3, 2006
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Civil society groups have already created a South Asian public space, which coincides with the cosmopolitan community in quest of humane governance

By Dev Raj Dahal

The Spreading Regime Wings

Dev Raj Dahal
The structure of international system shapes the behavior of sub-systemic bilateral, sub-regional and regional cooperation. Cooperative scheme of long-term rationality rests on a political strategy of confidence building, mutual recognition and shared view of common good. These incentives provide the states reasons for joining regime. The European Security Strategy rests on a coherence of its policies such as burden sharing in the transatlantic alliance, willingness to assert abroad, internal cohesion and the ability and willingness to cope with the security problems occurring at its borders. Europe has turned into a “social state” and maintained a reasonable balance between market competition and promotion of social justice through the social charter. In the context of changing nature of development cooperation, the EU has made commitment to MDGs and the other documents—Monterrey Conference on Finance and Development, Paris Declaration on Harmonization and Alignment and aims at reaching the target of 0.7 percent of GDP allocation to development assistance.

The multi-lateral cooperation in Asia, such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and ASEAN Plus Three ( China, Japan and South Korea) has been driven by ASEAN’s imperative for economic dynamism, regional security, peace and stability. In these regimes, confidence building has become an overriding objective of Summits, upon which solution-oriented approaches to regional challenges are applied through various tiers of functional cooperation. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMST-EC) promises new institutional expression of a regime, which seeks the wellbeing of regional peoples through shared development initiatives and provides links of South Asia to Southeast Asia. The Asian Highway Project of ESCAP aims integrated cooperation in the areas of infrastructure connectivity, energy, communication, investment in human capital and structural transformation of the region’s economy while the plan for Asian energy grid linking SAARC with China and Gulf Cooperation Council will likely to add synergy for cooperation. An embedded cooperation minimizes the possibility of deadly conflict.

What proved wrong so far is the hope that the domination of politics by the economic and technological condition of modernity can alone bring perpetual peace and address a host of complex strategic and non-traditional security challenges. The abolition of conflict through a balance of power or nuclear deterrence has simply remained flawed because it did not address the root causes and build sufficient level of trust for conflict resolution.
The renewal of South Asian consciousness and identity is inspiring the regional leaders to converge their expectations in the areas of cooperation and shape their common future. Rational leaders are sources of regime-building and economic integration. But, the institutional learning of SAARC from these regimes is cautious one. As a consequence, strong bilateralism has yet to keep pace with expanding horizon of multilateral cooperation. The greatest challenges in South Asia spring from the struggles for space, power, resource and identity, centrifugal movements of sub-national groups and other problems of transnational nature. Poverty, disease, rights violations, refugees, state fragility, terrorism, weapon proliferation, hunt for energy, etc. are embedded in the structural conditions of soft-state of the regime. The solution of these problems requires a coordinated, multi-national response.

The regional LDCs require a structure of incentives that brings forth the productive partnership, integration of city-centered economies with rural regions and absorption of their huge surplus workforce. They need a higher level of trade to overcome the insufficiencies of domestic markets, foreign assistance and direct investment to complement poor internal resources base and a safeguard against the vulnerability of their economies to external developments, such as inflation, ecological decline, debt crisis, market fluctuation, etc. Greater cooperation among the regional states, market institutions and civil societies can easily foreclose geopolitical rivalries, contribute to reducing security risks arising out of power disequilibrium and enable collective action to achieve the basic objectives of SAARC social charter so that systemic orientation of upward economic integration can balance downward social integration of the life-world.

What gives the South Asian leadership an extraordinary confidence is their faith in the tolerance of peoples, culture of argumentation, formation of a lively public sphere generated by cross-border sub-systemic movements of regional peoples and multi-track peace initiatives generated by the cross-border networks, associations and fora of civil society bodies representing judges, legislators, lawyers, journalists, business persons, teachers, artists, youths, women, etc and fostering a common SAARC identity. These civil society groups have already created a South Asian public space, which coincides with the cosmopolitan community in quest of humane governance. What is still important is how the demands generated by South Asian civil society groups can be absorbed by the institutional mechanism of SAARC, vision matches with capabilities and social organizations unleash production revolution.

Expanding the Framework of Multilateralism

In the Declaration of 12th SAARC summit regional leaders agreed to “establish dialogue partnership with other regional bodies and with states outside the region, interested in SAARC activities.” Inclusion of Afghanistan as the eighth member in SAARC has not only ensured the integrity of South Asian strategic geography but also established a connection with the Middle East and Central Asia. Millions of regional workers in the Middle East have cemented this link. SAARC needs to make major investment in human resource development and formulate a regional strategy to develop skilled workforce to match with knowledge-based society. To leverage the opportunities provided by the current economic dynamism of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), due to capital and resource (oil and natural gas) surplus and expanding labor market opportunities, South Asian policy communities have shown interest in expanding the base of remittance economy, trade, foreign direct investment and market opportunities.

Addition of China and Japan as observers of SAARC is enlarging its vision and opening itself to the outside world. Open regionalism has disadvantages if internal coherence and symmetry of information are not properly attuned, opportunities for mutual interests remain vaguely defined and policy coordination suffers due to structural and institutional deficiencies. The SAARC responded positively to the request of the United States and South Korea seeking observer status. For EU, South Asia’s importance is fundamental. The EU is, therefore, following a pro-active policy of engagement with the region and consistently affirmed its interest in strengthening links with SAARC.

China , Japan and South Korea by the logics of geo-economics of proximity are attracted towards the economic potential of this region. Economic cooperation strongly anchored within the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) and WTO is expected to produce spillovers into other sectors and generate contextual confidence in harnessing mutual investment, economic union and ultimately the formation of a South Asian economic community. But, there is a need to create a level playing field so that even small countries can also reap reasonable benefits. Expansion of member and engagements of regional and global powerhouses in the region mean raising the profile of South Asian regionalism, expanding the scope for multilateralism, enlarging the areas of functional cooperation and building a foundation for security.

Comprehensive security devoid of collective economic cooperation is simply unsustainable. This is the reason the South Asian countries are developing a flexible multilateral partnership and trying to secure their freedom of maneuver through mutual accommodation and multiple regime membership. China’s recent observer status in SAARC and India and Pakistan’s at the five-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) illustrates this point. On the one hand India is developing a strategic and cooperative partnership, instituting a political mechanism to resolve the boundary issue and expanding trade on the other hand it has signed a deal on civilian nuclear energy with the US. Pakistan and Afghanistan are members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Other smaller countries of the region are not far behind in seeking leverage for national self-assertion and mutual accommodation with the neighbors and global powers. Utilization of soft power, however, is central to foster the moderation of state behavior and minimize the conflict through the principles of subsidiarity.

Conclusion

The negative orientation of power politics in the region is the main reason for the repudiation of politics by SAARC in the formal processes and a search for the harmony of interests through core economic, social, ecological and technological issues. What proved wrong so far is the hope that the domination of politics by the economic and technological condition of modernity can alone bring perpetual peace and address a host of complex strategic and non-traditional security challenges. The abolition of conflict through a balance of power or nuclear deterrence has simply remained flawed because it did not address the root causes and build sufficient level of trust for conflict resolution. Making regional peoples and states common stakeholders requires the sharing of benefits of cooperation and strengthening the web of comprehensive security at inter-societal and inter-state levels.

The rationale for regional cooperation in South Asia has been reinforced by the rapid global changes taking place at strategic levels and by trends in the information technology, economy and the modernization processes unleashed by globalization. Securing an effective management of regional cooperation requires the collective strength, backed by unity of purpose and action in the region and international fora, commitment in the pursuit of SAARC goals and flexibility and adaptation in the changing dynamics of regional and international politics.

South Asian countries can overcome trade, finance and technological handicaps and can even gain bargaining power through mutual cooperation if they pro-actively harness the centripetal tendency of regional public. An embedded cooperation requires not just the palliative measures, which do not go to the root of the regional problems but a deep structural transformation of political economy. Successful progress in the region cannot be imported. It is vitally linked to the resiliency of the member states, markets and civil society groups, all acting in a common spirit to optimize the prospect for shared cooperation, peace, progress and identity of South Asia.

(Concluded)

Dahal is Head, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Kathmandu and can be reached at [email protected]

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