ABSTRACT
South Asia is a relatively young concept in political geography and geopolitical debates. Historically, the idea of South Asia gained prominence since the 1980s, especially with the creation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), yet besides SAARC, relations between India and Pakistan are also at the heart of any discussion about the region. The Chapter argues that this centrality is coming to an end, and that various developments on the global, the regional and the national level indicate that the idea of South Asia may also be a short-lived concept. Different internal and external developments seem to undermine and change the traditional understanding of South Asia. Firstly, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an external factor is reshaping the regional architecture, whereby new forms of regionalism offer stronger incentives for cooperation. Secondly, within South Asia itself, a process of decoupling between India and Pakistan can be observed with India’s focus shifting towards the Indo-Pacific mainly because of China’s rise and its geopolitical repercussions. Finally, the rise of nationalist ideologies is undermining the traditional assumption of South Asia being a civilizational sphere with syncretic religious and cultural tradition that cross national boundaries. These internal and external developments are likely to reshape the regional institutional architecture and lead to a new understanding of a ‘South Asia 2.0’ which will no longer correspond with the traditional institutional setup of SAARC and South Asia.
