Border Area Development: A Comparative Study of Central and South Asia

The concept of Border Area DevelopmentBorder Area Development (BAD) (BAD) arose in the post-Cold War era after the disintegration of the Soviet Union that gave birth to new states in Central AsiaCentral Asia and Eastern Europe. These sovereign borders in Central AsiaCentral Asia that came to being were not natural but artificial and political. This characteristic is similar to the borders of the South Asian region where the borders drawn between sovereign states are arbitrary and extremely conflicted. South Asian countries had similarly started its BAD programmes during the same time to regulate and promote trade among the neighboring countries.However, despite the idea of BAD surfacing at almost the same time in both the areas, over the years it has been observed that the border management programmes in Central Asia have been more successful in comparison with the South Asian region. Hence, this chapter explores the characteristics and challenges of border area and border area development by comparing Central and South Asian regions to understand the difference in results. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section explores the concept of border, border area development and establishes its roots and needs in the respective regions.. The second section evaluates the reasons for differential growth in BAD programmes in both regions by comparing parameters of similarities and differences. This is followed by a comparative case study between the middle powers of both regions—Uzbekistan and India on BDA exploring the challenges and opportunities.