ABSTRACT
Political challenges are arguably the biggest constraint to the realisation of regional energy projects in South Asia, an issue that has impeded cooperation despite the existence of substantial economic incentives. Although challenges such as technical difficulties, financial constraints and bureaucratic inefficiency are important, they are essentially subsidiary issues, the solutions to which are held hostage by the often mentioned but rarely examined political impediment. This chapter draws on interviews with policymakers in South Asia to categorise political challenges into three broad groups: regional geopolitics, failure of leadership to assert political will, and security challenges. Regional geopolitical issues broadly comprise India’s relationship with the smaller countries of South Asia and New Delhi’s reluctance to engage in multilateral cooperation. Leadership has failed to assert political will in six main categories: domestic politics, extra-regional rivalries, communication of energy cooperation, cost–benefit analysis of natural resources, implementation of energy projects and exploitative practices. Lastly, three groups of security challenges have been analysed: national security, socio-economic security of border populations, and environmental security.
