1st Edition
Energy Cooperation in South Asia Utilizing Natural Resources for Peace and Sustainable Development
This book analyses the key political challenges to regional energy cooperation in South Asia. It argues that investment in the planning of regional energy projects can increase their viability and also drive integration and peacebuilding.
Regional cooperation has been substantiated by academics and multilateral development banks as one of the most viable solutions to South Asia’s crippling energy crisis. However, three decades of national and regional efforts have failed to develop a single multilateral energy project or foster high levels of bilateral cooperation. Using data collected through extensive interviews with policymakers in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, this book identifies the specific roadblocks to energy cooperation – including domestic politics and the failure of leadership on multiple levels - and evaluates how these political challenges determine regional interactions on energy securitisation, environmental cooperation and human rights. Huda then undertakes case studies on four transnational energy projects to highlight specific policy recommendations to overcome these challenges, suggesting planning mechanisms through which the significant issue of energy cooperation in South Asia can be addressed.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy security and geopolitics, natural resource governance and South Asian politics.
Part 1
1. Introduction
2. Historical Context of Challenges to Regional Cooperation in South Asia
3. A Constructivist Approach to Regional Energy Cooperation in South Asia
4. The State of Energy Security and Energy Cooperation in South Asia
5. Dissecting Political Challenges to Energy Cooperation in South Asia
Part 2: Case Studies
6. The Failure of Energy Diplomacy in South Asia: A Post-Mortem of the MBI Pipeline
7. De-Securitising the TAPI Pipeline: Converging Interests of Countries, Companies and Communities through Collaborative Planning
8. A Cooperative Security Framework to Enhance Bilateral Hydroelectric Cooperation in South Asia: A Case Study of the Tipaimukh Dam
9. An Environmental Peace-building Framework to Enhance Multilateral Hydroelectric Cooperation in South Asia: A Case Study of the BBIN Sub-Regional Group
Part 3: Policy Recommendations and Conclusion
10. Key Findings and Policy Recommendations
Biography
Mirza Sadaqat Huda is an international researcher and policy analyst with expertise on energy, environment and peacebuilding in Asia. He holds a PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia.
"A trenchant and cutting analysis on how some of the most significant future energy challenges relate not to technology and affordability, but to politics, governance, and cooperation. Huda shows how energy security is a social and justice concern, and also how transnational energy projects are shaping the infrastructural landscape of South Asia. Worth reading for anyone who wants to seriously understand the dynamics and drivers of Asian energy transitions." -- Benjamin K. Sovacool, Professor of Energy Policy, University of Sussex
"Mirza Sadaqat Huda explores the big gap between the potential of regional energy cooperation in South Asia and the inability of the governments to realise it. His insights help unpack the challenges to regional energy cooperation and offer a pathway to a different and more productive future. Both scholars and policy-makers interested in South Asian regionalism can benefit from this pioneering study." -- C. Raja Mohan, Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
"This volume makes a substantive contribution to the emerging promise of cross border energy cooperation in South Asia. A handsome attempt has been made to demystify and decompose the political economy constraints and challenges." -- Mahendra P Lama, Senior Professor of South Asian Economies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
