The Shanghai Cooperation Organization

The essays in this book are divided into three clearly separate parts that complement each other. The first one “The SCO as Organization” as shown by the title is dedicated to the structure of the organization, its history and identity, the possible directions of future development. What is really interesting here is that every author presents the rationale behind the establishment of SCO, its first steps on the international scene and its consecutive history from its own perspective so by exploring all four essays the reader could easily build its own view of the SCO’s path and development. One of the essays in this chapter “The Spirit of the Silk Road: The SCO and China’s Relations with Central Asia” by Pan Guang demonstrates the two-directional influence between China and the organization in terms of security and economic cooperation. This influence is based not only on the current political and economical situation but has its rationale in the two thousand years of interactions between China and Central Asia. The essay also underlines the importance of the “Spirit of the Silk Road” and the specific role that China plays in fostering further cooperation within SCO. The contribution by Yu Bin “The SCO Ten Years After: In Search of Its Own Identity” gives brief but in depth account of the history, the rationale and the position of China, Russia and Central Asian countries towards the organization. It covers all possible issues that a reader and/or researcher would need to explore in order to have a better understanding of today’s situation. Yu Bin builds his analysis on impressive amount of scientific literature as well as primary sources.

The second part is entitled “The SCO and the World” and deals with the relations between the SCO and major international actors and the mutual perceptions. It contains eight (8) articles that cover almost all relations of the organization with the world. One of the impressive contributions deals with the inter-institutional cooperation and (non)-relations (p. 89), as they were described by the authors, between the SCO and NATO (written by Alyson J.K. Bailes and J.M. Thordisardottir). It has been clearly shown that between the two organizations the contacts are still on level secretariat-to-secretariat with, as of the autumn of 2012, no clear sign of further improvement of the relations. The authors also make an interesting analysis and comparison of the organizations through two hypotheses: the organizations as antagonists and the organizations as not similar enough to be able to build deeper relations. It has been argued that “the SCO is not globally active in the military/security dimension, as NATO is” (p. 103), which reflects the structural differences between them. The contribution of Yang Cheng “The Shanghai Spirit and SCO Mechanisms: Beyond Geopolitics” discusses the image of the organization within and outside it. The author argues that in the ten years of its existence between 2001 and 2011 it has grown into “sophisticated multilateral, multi-functional, regional, international organization” (p. 200). It is this fact that has attracted the attention of the international and, predominantly, the Western policy-makers’ attention. Yang Cheng divides the recent research literature as falling into four separate paradigms. Furthermore, the author reveals the importance “of the Shanghai Spirit for the SCO’s survival and development” (p. 204) through the non-material factors such as the transition of the international system and the paradigm shift. What is important in this article is that it also features the differences that exist within the organization and between its member states, the degree of regional identity among Central Asian states, the regimes security and threats and the interaction of small countries (like the ones in Central Asia) with great powers within or outside the region.

In this section the relations between the European Union and Central Asia and/or the SCO are covered only partially in several papers but there is no separate article that deals entirely with this issue. However, this fact does not diminish the overall positive impression of the essays gathered in this part.  

The third theme deals with the specific relations of the Central Asian states with the organization itself in different fields of cooperation. The article of M. Laruelle and S. Peyrouse, for example, highlights the Central Asian perspective of the organization and the so-called Shanghai Spirit as well as explores some of the issues that SCO still faces nowadays. The question of how states perceive the organization and how their respective interests collide and coincide also enriches the said essay. The other four contributions deal with the cooperation in the field of economic, finance and energy. As energy is one of the key resources and at the same time source of disputes between the states in Central Asia the two essays that analyze this controversial issue will be subject of this review. In the essay entitled “The SCO: An Energy Alliance in the Making” Sreemati Ganguli clearly shows how energy has transformed itself from resource into “political leverage associated with the ownership and distribution” (p 277). Thus this newly formed dimension of the energy leads to its strategic role and place in the relations within SCO. The author looks at the broader context of energy security as key element of the national security in order to assess objectively the necessity of the SCO initiative to establish an “Energy Club” and its place on the current international (economical) scene. Sreemati Ganguli describes the history and the first steps of the Club as well as the foreign policy directions of Russia, China and Kazakhstan that have led to its conception. It is also argued that the “Western involvement in the Eurasian energy scenario has provided another significant motivation for Russia to form the SCO Energy Club” (p. 284) with the EU and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline as part of the examples sustaining this conclusion. The role of the EU in the Eurasian energy politics and security has also enriched the analysis. Marianne Laanatza reveals the importance of the energy in the Central Asian region from the point of view of international trade policies. She shows the early steps in institutionalizing the energy trade in the region and with the EU through the conception and further implementation of the Energy Charter Treaty – ECT (or nowadays Energy Treaty). It has been also noted that the five Central Asian states had all signed and ratified the treaty (p. 297). The author compares the attitude of Russia, other countries and Western experts towards the ECT and the Energy Club. The analysis of the energy trade policy is enriched with data from the International Energy Agency. Another issue that has been brought to the attention of the reader is the current status of the WTO membership of the SCO states.

Due to the fact that the book contains both contributions with more practical and with purely scientific approach it may be recommended for practitioners, diplomats, specialists and academics. It will be a useful guide for those who have general interest or make their first steps in the field of Central Asian politics. It can be easily read and understood, as all essays have logical structure, are presented in very clear and concise way. One of the most positive features of the book is that it contains articles from authors with different background in terms of nationality, experience and field of study within the Social Sciences and the Humanities which gives the reader the whole spectrum of analysis about the organization, its member states and the diverse issues and developments SCO faces.