SIPRI Policy Paper No. 15

Regionalism in South Asian Diplomacy

Alyson J. K. Bailes, John Gooneratne, Mavara Inayat, Jamshed Ayaz Khan and Swaran Singh

Since 2003 SIPRI has published in its Yearbook a series of guest-authored chapters on the latest developments in regional security cooperation—or the lack of it—in various parts of the world. The SIPRI Yearbook 2006 contained a chapter by the Institute's Director, Alyson Bailes, and Dr Andrew Cottey of the University of Cork that tried to set out a new, objective analytical approach for assessing both the success and the legitimacy of different regional security ventures. How well have they performed in avoiding local conflicts, promoting constructive military cooperation, improving governance in the security sector and more widely, and tackling ‘new threats’ like terrorism and the functional or economic aspects of security? Do they represent a fair balance of their members’ interests, without necessarily damaging those of outsiders; do they adapt flexibly to changing security conditions; and do they offer good returns on the resources that are invested in them?

SIPRI Policy Paper No. 15 applies these questions to one of the world’s best-known problem areas. Regional cooperation directly targeted at security issues has been a non-starter for most of South Asia’s post-World War II history because of the adversarial relationship between India and Pakistan, but also because of a more general asymmetry between India and its smaller neighbours, and other persistent security problems (like the Sri Lankan internal conflict) that the region itself seems unable to master. Nevertheless, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has managed to keep the region's states working together for more modest purposes of economic and social cooperation, and has recently adopted documents on some ‘new threat’ issues. Could the conditions be maturing for a more positive turn in regional security relationships, spurred by some kind of ‘new start’ in SAARC, or by the impetus of specific progress, for example in confidence building between India and Pakistan, or possibly by the way that local states are learning to live together in larger regional networks? This Policy Paper, starting with an introduction by Alyson Bailes, gives the opportunity to experts from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to offer their independent answers to these questions, and also contains a general assessment (by a Pakistani author) of SAARC and its prospects. It will soon be followed by a parallel Policy Paper on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

1. Regionalism and security building, Alyson J. K. Bailes

2. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Mavara Inayat

3. India and regionalism, Swaran Singh

4. Pakistan and regionalism, Jamshed Ayaz Khan

5. Sri Lanka and regionalism, John Gooneratne

Alyson J. K. Bailes (United Kingdom) is the Director of SIPRI. She was a member of the British Diplomatic Service for 33 years, ending as British Ambassador to Finland in 2000–2002. Her other diplomatic postings include the British Delegations to Beijing, Bonn, Budapest, Oslo and NATO. She spent several periods on detachment outside the service, including two academic sabbaticals, a two-year period with the British Ministry of Defence, and assignments to the European Union and the Western European Union. Her main analytical interests are politico-military affairs, European integration and Central European affairs. She has published widely in international journals on these subjects as well as on Chinese foreign policy. She is the author of The European Security Strategy: An Evolutionary History, SIPRI Policy Paper no. 10 (Feb. 2005) and co-editor of The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy (2006). She has contributed to the SIPRI Yearbook since 2003.

Dr John Gooneratne (Sri Lanka) was a Sri Lankan Foreign Service Officer from 1961 to 93, serving at missions in the United States, Myanmar, Egypt and Iraq, as well as at the UN Mission in New York. He was Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Iraq in 1989–92, with concurrent accreditation to Jordan and Turkey. In 1993–99 he was Associate Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo. He worked at the Sri Lankan Government’s Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) from its establishment in January 2002 until May 2006 and served as its Secretary-General from December 2005 until April 2006. He is the author of A Decade of Confrontation: Sri Lanka and India in the 1980s (2002) and has published articles in Sri Lankan and Indian newspapers and journals on current affairs, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation.

Dr Mavara Inayat (Pakistan) is a Fellow at the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) and Visiting Professor of International Relations at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. She is a specialist on South Asia and is currently working on the implications of Iran’s nuclear programme. She received a PhD with Chancellor’s Commendation from Curtin University, Perth, Australia, where she also taught contemporary security studies. Her most recent article is ‘Indo-US strategic pact: implications for Asia and beyond’, Spotlight, vol. 25 (2006). Her forthcoming publications include Pakistan’s Security and its Attitude towards SAARC and Feminist Consciousness and Pakistan’s Security (Australian Society for South Asian Studies).

Major General Jamshed Ayaz Khan (retd) (Pakistan) has been the President of the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), Islamabad, since 2002. He served in the Pakistani Army for nearly 39 years until his retirement in 2001. Among his other appointments, he was Additional Secretary for Defence Production in Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence. He was decorated with the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) award for his service in the army. He has written extensively on regional security issues and is the author of Asia: Search for Security and Cooperation (2006) and Reflections on Matters of War and Peace (2003).

Swaran Singh (India) is Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Academic Consultant at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi. He is currently the President of the Association of Asia Scholars. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Peace in Costa Rica, Visiting Faculty of the Beijing University, Visiting Fellow of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies Center for Asian Studies (Hong Kong University), Guest Researcher at SIPRI, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis in New Delhi. He has written extensively on India’s foreign and security policy and on China’s relations with India. His recent publications include China–India Economic Engagement: Building Mutual Confidence (2005) and China–South Asia: Issues, Equations, Policies (2003).