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One out of every five people in the world lives in the countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The problems they face are so huge that they present a defining challenge to the core mandates of the United Nations as the global arena for problem-solving.

These challenges range from economic development, environmental protection, and food and water security to democratic governance and human rights, nuclear war and peace, inter-state and internal conflicts and new security issues like AIDS and international terrorism.

What happens in South Asia will help shape the contours of the global community in the decades ahead. We must come to terms with the region's many serious  challenges to give the concept of the international community a practical meaning and encapsulate the notion of "solidarity without borders".

Two of the central purposes of the United Nations – to maintain international peace and security and to promote social and economic advancement – make it imperative for the organisation to address these issues in South Asia.

South Asia in the World, edited by Ramesh Thakur and Oddny Wiggen, develops the dialogue between academics and practitioners from a deeply divided region as they explore the potential for improvement in domestic and international efforts to alleviate the problems of South Asia and the role that the UN can play.

• Ramesh Thakur is the Senior Vice-Rector of the United Nations University, Tokyo. 

• Oddny Wiggen is a research fellow at the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Oslo.

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