Before 1947, South Asia was for the most part a single state. Multiple states emerged thereafter, and then moved apart politically, culturally, and economically. The resulting interstate tensions are manifest in the countless "negative lists"-items that may not be traded, tariffs that must be paid, transport lines that cannot be crossed-that govern these nations' daily interactions. Intermittent armed conflict in the region only intensifies feelings of distrust.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, interstate relations can be characterized by mutual wariness and circumspection. Failures in development and security cooperation have hurt South Asia, which contains two declared nuclear powers, India and Pakistan. Crossborder human trafficking and terrorism are increasing. Regional trade represents a paltry 5 percent of total trade. Globally, regional integration and prominent regional institutions-such as the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-are gaining ground, but South Asia lags behind. It is almost as if South Asia, as a region, does not exist.

Given that South Asia contains India, one of the world's most dynamic, democratic economies, this is an anomaly. As shown in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, a "powerhouse" state can be the best guarantor of regional stability and integration. India's recent rise has prompted in some progress in regionalism, but it has been modest to date.
More can and must be done to understand regionalism's drivers, benefits, and barriers. Using a comparative perspective, this lively and broad-based volume draws on theories of trade, security, great-power influence, and domestic political theory to examine the prospects for South Asian regionalism. Does South Asia Exist? devotes particular attention to India, the largest power in the region, and analyzes the extent to which it enhances or blocks greater regional integration. As the distinguished contributors reveal with piercing honesty, the question at the heart of this provocative book defies easy answers.

Examination copies: Desk, examination, or review copies can be requested through Stanford University Press.

The 2008–2009 financial crisis demands we look anew at the role of corporations, and the working of financial markets around the world. In this challenging and insightful book, one of our most eminent economists provides a compelling new analysis of the corporate firm; the role of shareholders, managers and workers; and institutional governance structures.

In recent decades the firm has predominantly been seen as an organization run and governed in the interests of shareholders, where management acts as the agent of shareholders, and the workers simply as instruments for share-value maximization. This book reverses this viewpoint. It sees corporations as associational cognitive systems where "cognitive actions" are distributed amongst managers and workers, with shareholders supplying "cognitive tools" and monitoring their use in the systems. Aoki analyses the different relationships that can exist between shareholders, managers, and workers from this perspective, and identifies a range of different models of organizational architecture and associated governance structures. He also discusses ways in which corporations act as players in social, political, and organizational games, as well as global economic games; how these inter-related social dynamics may change particular, distinctive national structures into the diversity incorporated in the global corporate landscape; and how they now call for new roles for financial markets.

"Masahiko Aoki uses the social mathematics of game theory to reveal the deep structure of corporate governance systems, in the process explaining the persistence of diversity under conditions of globalization. His profound and highly original analysis speaks directly to the issue of corporate governance reform in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008–9."
-Simon Deakin, Professor of Law, University of Cambridge
"The recent wave of fraud, corruption, and fiscal irresponsibility at the highest corporate levels dramatizes the need for a model of the modern corporation that is at the same time deeply economic in the recognition of the centrality of incentives, and deeply sociological in the recognition of the centrality of social norms and a culture of corporate morality. Professor Aoki has combined his magisterial knowledge of business organization with a foundational study of the role of culture in epistemic game theory to produce, for the first time, a truly transdisciplinary model of the corporation."
-Herbert Gintis, Santa Fe Institute
"This is a path breaking book that provides a rigorous analysis of the cognitive underpinnings of corporations. It gives fundamental insights into the diversity of organizational forms that exist and the association of these with the historical, political, social, and technological contexts within which they operate. As with so much of Professor Aoki's work, it will radically alter the way in which we view the corporation."
-Colin Mayer, Peter Moores, Dean, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
"A pioneering contribution which formalizes in game theoretic language complex institutional structure and environment of the corporation both at a moment of time and over time."
-Douglass C. North, Nobel Laureate in Economics 1993, Spencer; T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis