[18.06.09] The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: Widening and Deepening?
The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs [NUPI] has the great pleasure of inviting you to the seminar
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: Widening and Deepening?
Lecture by Marc Lanteigne, Guest Researcher at NUPI
Since the 1990s, China’s views on multilateral security have become much more accepting of the need for regional coordination on strategic issues. However, Beijing has been a frequent critic of traditional cold-war era alliance-based forms of cooperation, arguing that modern security problems have necessitated new thinking on how states should effectively cooperate to address transnational threats. By far the most visible example of this policy has been the development since 2001, greatly influenced by Beijing, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. This organisation, which brings together China, Russia, and most of Central Asia, has been designed to promote regional security but also protect the area again non-state threats, including terrorist organisations.
It's success has led to other states in the region, including Iran, also seeking membership. Despite the SCO’s official stance that it is not an alliance and not aligned against the West or any other state adversary, the organisation’s rapid development has nonetheless caught the attention of Western powers and has raised some concerns that the SCO might simply be an alliance-in-waiting, spearheaded by two great powers which have had a significant number of policy differences with the United States. At the same time, the SCO is a strong player in international energy politics as a result of including large producers (Russia, Kazakhstan) as well as larger consumers (China). What also makes the SCO distinct as a security organisation is that it is the largest such group to be so heavily dominated in terms of policy development by Beijing.
Seminar from 14.00 - 15.00
Marc Lanteigne is lecturer in International Relations at University of St. Andrews, School of International Relations. The next two months he is Guest Researcher at NUPI.