Geo-strategically speaking, South Asia, which represents about one-fourth of the world population, occupies a very important position in the arena of world politics. The regional characteristics are marked by sharp contrasts—on the one hand, South Asia is one of the fastest growing regional economies with declining poverty rates and improvements in human development indicators, and on the other, it is marked by weak governance structures and feeble democratic institutions. It is also home to some of the worst forms of deprivation, poverty, and socio-political conflicts.
Democratic institutions in South Asia have largely remained weak. The crisis of democracy is manifested by pervasive nepotism and corruption, an absence of transparency and accountancy in public administration, and a lack of respect for the rule of law. Lack of democratic governance in one state affects governance in the neighbouring states. Social issues affect the quality of life of the poor in South Asia. This category also includes issues like energy security, health security, problems arising out of global warming, water management, human rights and gender balance, refugees, cyber warfare, etc. Political issues include legitimacy, democracy, governance, insurgency, war on terror, cyber terrorism, etc.
In the aforesaid backdrop, the present volume aims to serve the needs of post-graduate students, research scholars, and policy makers who deal with South Asia.
Raj Kumar Kothari, M.A. (Political Science, First Class First), M.Phil. (Political Science), Ph.D. (under the Ford Foundation Programme in International Relations from the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai), is currently the Professor of Political Science at Diamond Harbour Women’s University, West Bengal, India. He has also worked as the Professor and Head at the Department of Political Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India.
Prof. Kothari has to his credit eight self-authored and edited books, published by renowned publishing houses. He has already successfully completed four UGC sponsored Major/Minor research projects on different areas in international relations. This apart, he has so far published around forty research articles in several reputed national and international journals and newspapers. He has the distinction of chairing sessions, delivering special lectures, and making paper presentations at international, national, and state-level platforms on more than 120 occasions.
Prof. Kothari has been actively engaged in teaching and research in the discipline of international relations for about last three decades. Under his erudite supervision, several research scholars have already received their respective Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees.
