Analyzing the Stagnation of South Asian Regional Cooperation: A Neo-Functionalist Perspective

Abstract

In the wave of international regional integration in the 1980s, South Asia began to explore the cooperation within the region. Since its inception, South Asia regional cooperation has been deeply influenced by the neo-functionalism theory, which advocates that cooperation should be given priority in the technical fields with less differences, and take this as the cornerstone to gradually build trust, and then expand the scope of cooperation to the economic and commercial fields. However, although SAARC has made some progress in the functional field, it has not been able to significantly expand or extend its cooperation to other more critical areas. Through in-depth analysis of the Haas-Schmidt framework, we find that the special geopolitical pattern in South Asia, that is, the imbalance of the power structure, poses a fundamental challenge to the in-depth development of regional cooperation in South Asia. The complicated conflicts among South Asian countries have led to a general lack of willingness to cooperate. At the same time, the institutional structure of SAARC is not yet perfect, and its regional integration capacity is relatively weak. In addition, the lagging economic development and sluggish trade growth in South Asia have also constrained the development of regional cooperation in South Asia. Further, taking into account the particularity of South Asia, we also find that the following factors hinder the integration of South Asia: First, the lack of regional awareness in South Asia leads to the lack of a common vision for regional cooperation among countries; Second, the outward-looking strategy of South Asian countries makes them pay more attention to relations with non-regional countries in regional cooperation; Third, the influence of non-regional powers has made the regional cooperation process in South Asia subject to interference and restriction by external factors.