This study has explored the politics of regionalism in South Asia. It has illustrated the politics of its origins and evolution by following a ‘process-tracing’ approach in which it has explained the causal mechanisms of its evolution and analysed its processes, events, actions, expectations and other intervening variables that linked putative causes to observed effects. It has also analysed the outcome and effects of regionalism in South Asia. To contextualize the study, it is developed against the background of the place of regionalism and regional international relations in world politics. South Asian regionalism was developed as a consequence of the development of regionalism in other parts of the world. It can be located in the evolutionary process of regionalism in the greater Asian region. As this study is essentially informed by the scholarship of IR, it has tested the key theoretical claims of the mainstream IR theories about regionalism in which it is claimed that neo-realism is good at explaining the origins of regionalism, neo-liberal institutionalism is apt at explaining its process and outcome, and constructivism provides insights about the effects of regional cooperation.

The study in Chapter 1 explored the regional international relations of South Asia and illustrated its key trends and patterns from 1947 to date. This chapter laid the foundation for the analysis of the politics of regionalism in South Asia in the subsequent chapters. Arguably, the establishment of a regional organization is a political project and its dynamics are essentially determined by the patterns of interstate relationships in the given region. As illustrated, a pattern of conflict has been the dominant feature of South Asia's international relations since decolonization and the rise of independent states. More specifically, the enduring rivalry between India and Pakistan has shaped the dynamics of the region's international relations. As analysed in Chapter 6, the proliferation of differences and disagreements within SAARC that eventually stalled its activities with the cancellation of the 19th summit in Islamabad in 2016 was due to Indo–Pakistani politico-strategic discord.

The study in Chapter 2 illustrated the contested nature of defining a ‘region’. Arguably, what constitutes a ‘South Asia region’ is a difficult question. Is it a geographic entity with a fixed boundary? Or, is it a changeable phenomenon?