ABSTRACT
In the post-cold war era, the inter-state relations are under the sway of two emerging tendencies. First, it may not appear plausible but it is true that globalization has simultaneously unleashed the forces of global interdependence as well as regional integration. In region after region, it may be that Europe, North America, South East Asia or Africa are on the way in experimenting with a variety of regional or sub-regional free trading arrangements, comprehensive economic partnerships, custom unions and others. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), European Union (EU), ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as well as Regional Comprehensive Economic partnership (RCEP) are some of the noticeable examples of the regional integration initiatives. The impact and reach of these free trading arrangements is so pervasive that even the rationale of the World Trade Organization is under challenge. Second, the considerations of trade, investment, or other non-political and non-ideological considerations dominate intercourse among nations. The US and China have wide differences on strategic and security issues like the South China Sea or the Syrian crisis, but this has not dampened their economic engagement. For example, with $598 billion trade, China was the largest goods trading partner of the US in 2015 (USTR: 2016). Similarly, India and China have many areas of tension including a long-standing boundary dispute, and the expansion of UN Security Council, but this has not come in the way of their increasing trade and investment ties. With a $73 billion bilateral trade between the two countries in 2014–15, China was the second largest trading partner of India. In a nutshell, the prospects of economic gains have ironed out or sidelined political differences among nations. However, the reverse is true in the case of South Asia. South Asia was and continues to be immune from the forces of regional integration. Politics, not economic considerations, dominates the inter-state relations among nations in South Asia, even in the age of globalization. Cold War or no Cold War, globalization or no globalization, the inter-state engagements among regional actors in South Asia as a region remain immune to the above global tendencies.
