India's Foreign Policy and Regional Multilateralism

While successful processes of regional multilateralism are taking place in all corners of the world, South Asia and its neighbouring regions have not been able to successfully cooperate in a regional framework. At present, there are four regional organizations or initiatives: the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral-Economic Cooperation, the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation and the Mekong Ganga Cooperation Initiative. Arndt Michael examines the genesis and evolution of these organizations by using the theoretical perspective of norm localization. The study focuses especially on India - a founding member in all four organizations - and traces the impact of India's foreign policy on the discourse, the development and the institutional designs of regional multilateralism. Winner of the Cecil B. Book Award 2013. 'It is an important topic especially with regard to the developing world. It is logically written and allows even non-specialists to grasp the basic topic. It is based on thorough knowledge of the existing literature and incorporates significant new original materials that make this a must read' William Head, chair of Cecil B. Currey Book Award