Monograph Chapters

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Changing face: The Trials and Fortunes of Regional Cooperation in South Asia
(Kathmandu: SAWTEE and SACEPS, 2012) Kelegama, Saman
As set out in the organization’s charter, the primary objective of SAARC is to utilize cooperation among its member states as a springboard for achieving cohesive development in the economic, cultural and socio-political lives of their citizens. Nevertheless, despite enormous potential for facilitating such development in a region populated by over 40 percent of the world’s poor, SAARC’s effectiveness has been limited and its successes far too few. In acknowledgement of such failings, a Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) Report was commissioned by the organization for consideration at its 1998 summit in Colombo. The Report points to SAARC’s inadequate role in fostering regional cooperation, and then goes on to articulate a vision of change, detailing the steps that must be taken in order to transform the organization into the fulcrum of a truly integrated and self-sustaining regional society. This article considers the obstacles, which, until now, have hindered SAARC from achieving such a transformation. It then discusses a number of new opportunities, which, if appropriately exploited, could provide a means for SAARC to close the gap between the GEP vision of an effective and productive organization for regional cooperation, and its far less desirable reality.