Conflicting Identities Travails of Regionalism in Asia.

Regionalism in Asia seeks practical compromise between global governance and national aspirations through cooperation shaped by distinct regional realities.

In the era of globalization, regionalism aims at a practical compromise between global governance and national aspirations. Attempts have been made by states, in varying degrees, to advance cooperation towards mutual benefit in different parts of the world. However, the very process of regional cooperation in a defined geographical area adopts unique ways and special characters to accommodate the particularities of the region and does not lead to similar consequences when compared with the processes in motion in other areas. This volume is the culmination of the brainstorming exercise of a National Seminar on Asian Regionalism in the Twenty First Century' at the Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. The task is to fulfil two main objectives: to join the debate on the efficacy of regionalism today and make a meaningful contribution to an understanding of the subject; and also to suggest ways of tiding over the problems faced by the countries in various regions or sub-regions of the Asian continent in their attempts to advance towards the goal of regional cooperation and integration.

The essays in this book are envisioned to benefit not only a wide community of scholars involved in teaching and research in general and the students of international relations in particular but would also be of interest to any avid reader who intends to explore the patterns of contemporary world politics.

Table of Contents

• 1. Regionalism and Security: Bridges over Fault-lines anindya jyoti majumdar 15
• 2. Regionalism in Asia-Pacific: Role of APT and EAS g.v.c. naidu 31
• 3. Eurasian Regional Security: The Role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization bijaya kumar das 47
• 4. Genesis and Evolution of Regionalism in Europe and South Asia: A Comparative Analysis purusottam bhattacharya 69
• 5. South Asian Regionalism in the Light of Evolving Neo-regionalism in Asia shantanu chakrabarti 93
• 6. SAARC in India's Foreign Policy Calculus partha pratim basu 111
• 7. Rethinking Regionalism in South Asia a. subramanyam raju 129
• 8. ASEAN in the New Global Order: The Effective-Ineffective Dichotomy tridib chakraborti 143
• 9. (Re)evaluating Regionalism in West Asia sanjukta banerji bhattacharya 183
• 10. Regionalism in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Endogenous and Exogenous Factors bhagaban behera 215
• 11. Asian Regionalism and Sub-Regionalism: The Context of Indo-Thai Cooperation and Connectivity lipi ghosh 237
• List of Contributors 263
• Index 267