Social Sciences
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/189
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item South Asian Regionalism need to be Reinvigorate; A Study on SAARC(2nd International Studies Students’ Research Symposium – 2018, Department of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Jayasinghe, N.D.Regionalism is one of the prominent phenomenon in modern International politics. Focusing to the South Asian region, South Asia is the world’s most densely populated region with the richest varieties of natural resources and consist of eight countries namely India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan .with the intention of promoting the concept of regional cooperation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been established in 1985 with the main concerns to fulfill the Socio economics and political intentions of member states. In the three decades of its existence SAARC unable to fulfill its promises to the region and the research aims to find out the ineffectiveness of SAARC and to evaluate necessity of proper functioning regional organization to the South Asia. By referring to the qualitative data which was collected from both printed and electronic documents which including Books journals, webs and present periodicals it was founded that law intra-regional trade and infrastructure, poverty, issues in South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), Ineffective role on counter terrorism and human rights issues were evidences to prove that SAARC was an elusive regional organization and bilateral political issues among member countries ,strategic dissonance, domestic conflicts, economic disparities and economic and political relations of member states with extra regional powers were the factors that affect for the ineffectiveness of SAARC. Analysis done between elusive nature and impediments to the elusive nature of SAARC it was recognize that south Asian regionalism needs to be reinvigorate and power balance among the member states, diplomatic and new economic strategies can be used to strengthen the regionalism in south Asia and following up a common road map of political and economic integration is the most suitable mechanism to success the concept of regionalism in South AsiaItem Nationalism or Regionalism: The Impacts of the Catalan secession on the Spanish region.(1st International Studies Students’ Research Symposium-2017 (ISSRS 2017) ,Department of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Thennakoon, A.S.The Catalan region is one of 17 autonomous regions in the Spanish mainland. Recently they had an independence referendum to declare themselves as a sovereign nation. But Spain's Constitutional Court has ruled illegal the ousted Catalan parliament's recent vote to declare the region independent from Spain and used violence against Catalan voters. Since then, there is an increased amount of interest across the globe about international relations between regions, particularly in the Catalonian/Spanish coalition. But there is limited access to collect precise information about the impacts of Catalan secession on the Spanish region. To fill that gap, I conducted a study by adopting a qualitative research method and used secondary sources to gather data. The objective of this study is to create a better understanding of the Catalonian/Spanish coalition and the impacts of the Catalan secession on the Spanish region. From the findings and discussion point of view, this study indicates that the origins of modern Catalan nationalism roots back to the era of Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent transition to democracy. Moreover, my findings indicate from an economic point of view, secession would have extremely negative consequences for Spain, because Catalonia accounts for nearly a fifth of Spain's economy and leads all regions in producing 25% of the country's exports. Catalan is Spain’s engine of growth, accounting for 19 percent of its GDP, it contributes much more in taxes (21% of the country's total) than it gets back from the government. Furthermore, these findings reflect that Spain without Catalan would continue to be part of all the institutions to which it now belongs, although not necessarily in the same conditions. For example, in the European Union, Spain would have to renegotiate its weight in the Council, the number of MEPs, and so forth. To conclude, according to this study, the impact of the Catalan secession on the Spanish region is more negative, and Spanish economic crisis is considered as a threat to the spirit of the European Union as well.Item The Growing Need for a SAARC-ASEAN Platform: South Asian Perspective(Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesinghe, H.Despite the fact that, today we are living in the Asian century, and the center of global economic gravity is shifting towards the Asia, not adequate effort has been made at all levels in understanding and discovering the possibilities and prospects of constructing a common platform on which SAARC and ASEAN as two regional setups can work collectively for realizing common objectives. As both the regions are on the track for attaining greater political stability and economic success, efficient and effective SAARC-ASEAN cooperation would provide an ideal multilateral mechanism for member states of both ASEAN and SAARC to pursue their political, economic and social gains and to attain a powerful position in the international arena. From a South Asian perspective, increasing ties with the ASEAN member states would be a golden opportunity for the South Asian countries to expand its regional scope and yield better results. Can these two regional setups, which are at different levels of regional integration join hands and be on a common platform? What are the main challenges to be overcome if such platform is to be created? And how South Asia would be benefitted through such a platform? These are the main questions which would be attempted to answer through the study. The study consists of two main objectives. First, the study attempts to analyze the prospects and challenges to be overcome in the context of creating a SAARC-ASEAN platform for greater political, economic, social and cultural cohesion. Secondly, the study shall look into how such a platform affects South Asia as a region. In order to gain the in depth knowledge required for the study, a comparative study of SAARC and ASEAN is done with interviews with individuals having a greater bearing on the foretold objectives. In order to attain the first of the foretold objectives, the study has made a SWOT analysis where it looks into strengths which could be strengthened further, weaknesses to be rectified, opportunities to be grabbed and work on and threats to be deterred in the context of strengthening SAARC-ASEAN relations. Basically, the study results reflect the fact, despite the inadequate enthusiasm shown and efforts made, there is a wealth of opportunities and space for creating a common platform what would mutually benefit both the groups and especially for SAARC it would also be a learning curve for strengthening relations among its member states.