Reconnecting a fractured family

South Asia, for all its shared past, often finds itself trapped in the paradox of disconnection. In the book The Tortuous Evolution of South Asian Regional Cooperation: Bangladesh’s Travails for Sub-Regional Cooperation, seasoned Bangladeshi diplomat Tariq Ahmed Karim brings both candour and clarity to this paradox, tracing how a region with centuries of cultural, economic, and emotional entanglements became one of the least integrated in the world. This is not just a historical recounting or a diplomatic memoir—it is a sober meditation on what went wrong and a cautiously hopeful map of what might still be set right.

Karim begins by exploring the devastating consequences of Partition, which transformed one of the world’s most integrated regions into one of its most divided overnight. Using vivid metaphors—like comparing South Asia to a dysfunctional joint family—he underscores the region’s deep-rooted interdependence alongside its entrenched divisions. The book critiques postcolonial state formation, highlighting the importation of Western institutions misaligned with Indigenous needs and realities. It also examines the emergence of elite-driven governance and nationalist contradictions that influence regional politics today.

Karim opens with a powerful metaphor that serves as a quiet refrain throughout the book: South Asia as an unruly but deeply connected joint family. This image is more than nostalgia—it reminds us of a civilizational reality that predates the nation-states we now live within. The metaphor captures the region’s tragic irony: intimate familiarity without functional cohesion, mutual obsession without meaningful cooperation. Karim offers a compelling and introspective journey through the fractured and often contradictory landscape of South Asian geopolitics. Written with the insight of a seasoned diplomat, the book examines the historical, political, and cultural dynamics that have shaped, hindered, and, at times, reignited the region’s attempts at cooperation.

The book unfolds as both a diagnosis and a confessional. Karim brings a diplomat’s precision and a participant-observers perspective to his account of regional cooperation’s halting steps and frequent stumbles. What sets this work apart is its blend of geopolitical analysis, institutional critique, and deeply personal reflection. Karim is not an outsider theorising from afar—he was in the room when some of the region’s most important but overlooked decisions were made.

At its heart, the book tracks the decline of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the emergence of sub-regionalism as a more viable, if uneven, alternative. Karim is unflinching in his critique of SAARC’s design: its unanimity principle, its vulnerability to India-Pakistan rivalries, and its failure to deliver beyond rhetorical summits. He does not dismiss the original vision of SAARC. Still, he shows how institutional inertia and political mistrust rendered it incapable of adapting to the region’s evolving needs.

His recounting of Bangladesh’s role in initiating SAARC challenges widely held assumptions. Far from being a junior partner, Bangladesh emerges as a persistent, if often overlooked, integration champion. The irony is sharp——while Bangladesh proposed the idea of regional cooperation, larger neighbours, especially India, treated it with suspicion in the early years. Karim traces how that scepticism gradually led to cautious collaboration, especially in the post-2010 phase of Indo-Bangladeshi relations.

The book finds its voice in exploring sub-regionalism—particularly the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) initiative and BIMSTEC. Karim’s inside view of these efforts reveals the nitty-gritty of regional diplomacy: the failed motor vehicle agreements, the revived rail lines, and the quiet electricity-sharing pacts. These are not grand gestures but micro-integrations—incremental steps toward connectivity that bypass the dysfunction of larger platforms.

His chapter on river diplomacy—especially over the Ganges and Brahmaputra—is among the most illuminating. Karim uses these case studies to show how even historically contentious issues can be reframed through trust and mutual benefit. The 1996 Ganges Treaty, signed during Sheikh Hasina’s first term, is presented not as a miracle but as a model: patient diplomacy anchored in realism, not rhetoric.

However, the book is not content with diplomatic memoirs. It often veers into deeper waters: the colonial legacies of statehood, the imported nature of South Asia’s institutions, and the incoherence of sovereignty in the region. Drawing from Robert Jackson’s concept of “negative sovereignty,” Karim argues that postcolonial South Asian states inherited the shell of statehood without scaffolding legitimacy. The result was predictable: states obsessed with borders but unsure of identities, protective of sovereignty but often hostile to cooperation.

The most potent chapters are those where Karim interrogates the region’s political culture. Nationalism weaponised for electoral gain; migrants used as scapegoats, cross-border projects stalled by parochial politics—these are not diplomatic failures alone. They are the logical outcome of political systems that have yet to align national interests with regional realities. Karim’s tone here is restrained, but his frustration is unmistakable.

The final chapters of the book move towards a cautiously optimistic future. Reconnecting railways, power grids, and river routes provides tangible hope. However, Karim remains realistic: even the most promising initiatives will falter without political will and institutional reform. He suggests that a “black swan” event—something unexpected and disruptive—might be necessary to jolt the region out of its stagnant state. This is a dramatic proposition but not without precedent; after all, Europe’s integration began not in peace but in the aftermath of war, as Karim points out.

What is missing—though only lightly—is the voice of civil society and youth. While Karim’s diplomatic perspective is rich in experience, it sometimes under-represents the bottom-up energies that unite the region. South Asian people often accomplish what their states cannot, engaging in cultural collaborations, student exchanges, informal trade, and transnational initiatives. Incorporating these perspectives could have transformed the book into a summary of what has been attempted and a fuller vision of what is possible.

Still, Karim’s achievement is substantial. He gives us not only an account of what South Asian cooperation looks like from the inside but also a framework for imagining it anew. He calls for rethinking sovereignty, recalibration of nationalism, and repurposing Asia’s history—from a site of grievance to a source of solidarity.

In his book, Karim blends memoir, analysis, and advocacy. It is both a historical reckoning and a strategic roadmap. Diplomats, scholars, and policymakers must re-imagine South Asia’s future beyond borders and barriers. Ultimately, the book is not a lament. It is an argument that South Asia, for all its wounds and suspicions, still holds the capacity for reconnection within it. Moreover, perhaps the future lies not in grand unifying projects, but in the slow, stubborn work of regional empathy—one corridor, one river, one conversation at a time.

Simon Mohsin is a political and international affairs analyst. simonbksp@gmail.com