Pakistan and Regionalism

Regionalism has not been a very successful endeavour in South Asia so far. What has gone wrong? Regionalism can be approached from both functional and neo-functional approaches. While functionalism is still relevant in Europe, primarily because of its geographical contiguity and cultural commonalities, the same does not seem to have worked in South Asia in spite of common historical and cultural roots and geographical contiguity. The article explores the specific case of Pakistan and its inability to come to terms with the basic tenets of regionalism. It argues that Pakistan’s insistence on the inclusion of contentious issues like Kashmir and religious issues at the regional level to achieve strategic goals has prevented it from harnessing the potential of SAARC.