The political economy of regionalism in southwest Asia: The case of the Economic Cooperation Organization

This dissertation is a case study of the ECO. It evaluates the ECO's structure and process, observing that since the inception of the ECO, none of its member states have been each other's major trading partners. This fact is related to the lack of regional security in the ECO, which is mutually constitutive with regional formations.; Chapter One argues that in most regional formations, security plays an important role. This chapter demonstrates that security has been central to the politics of the European Union (EU). Conversely, other regional formations are not as successful as the EU, as they are less conscious of security than the Europeans are.; The second part of this dissertation is a case study of the ECO and its institutions based on archival research and interviews with the ECO officials. Chapter Two looks at the history of the ECO. The chapter points out that the ECO is the successor organization to the RCD, whose origin lay in regional security. This chapter argues that the ECO is an ecumenical whole, an organization that is vying to achieve greater cooperation and unity. This chapter also ascribes the slow progress of the ECO to the loss of the RCD's strategic vision. Furthermore, Chapter Two states that the ECO's enlargement has increased existing bureaucratic inertia, thus slowing the process of regional integration.; Chapter Three gives an in-depth economic and trade profile of the ECO states. This chapter demonstrates that although the entire ECO region is abundant in resources, it is still one of the world's most impoverished regions. The chapter documents how the ECO region seeks regionalism in order to achieve a higher level of development; at the same time, one reason it is not a successful organization is the lack of economic and industrial development. This paradox has kept intra-ECO trade at a low level.; The last chapter gives a detailed account of the regional security predicament. The chapter notes that the security of northern tier states is tied to NATO and Russia, while the southern tier states continue to grapple with the problem of Afghanistan. This chapter also argues that the conditions necessary for a successful regional organization, one with a customs union and a higher coordination of issues relating to defense and foreign policy, are present in the ECO. However, no significant integration of the ECO has taken place.