Understanding the dynamics of regionalism and regional hegemony in South America and South Asia: Lessons for the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and its members from regionalism in South America

The second half of the 20th century has integrated the world as never before. Despite numerous conflicts and wars in different parts of the world, there is more cooperation among nations today than at any time in the past (Gupta 1988:vii). Regionalism is not a new phenomenon, it has existed across the world for many decades; however organisations such as the European Union have added a fresh impulse to regional organisations. Economic cooperation has been key for cooperation between countries at all levels, as is evident from the number of rapidly growing Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs) at multilateral levels. This new trend of FTAs has emerged since the early 1990s, and some scholars have labelled this as 'New Regionalism' because of the growing involvement of non-state actors in a process led by states (Schulz, Soderbaum & Ojendal 2001:4). Developing countries have also been enthusiastically participating in the current movement of regionalism (Fortin 2005:iii). Every country has a membership is a regional forum, not just because they have found that multilateralism at a global level is insufficient to address their concerns, but also so as to be able to reach quick consensus on issues of mutual concern. In addition, building consensus and the implementation of regional projects are both easier to accomplish within smaller groups than in global institutions with many actors. In developing regions, in particular, there have been growing tendencies toward the creation of regional organisations because of the realisation of the need for cooperation to address common humanitarian, security and development challenges. Since the end of the bipolar era of the Cold War there has been interest in examining the role of regional powers; however, less investigation has been realised on comparison of regional powers.