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The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a loosely organized, multi-purpose international institution. Unlike security institutions with a high level of integration, it has no integrated military structure, rapid reaction force, and a dispute resolution mechanism. This raises a fundamental question about the SCO's security role: Does the SCO have the capacity to contribute meaningfully to its members' ability to overcome the perceived threats to their security and to establish a regional order? This study suggests that this question can be answered by looking at the ability of the organization to fulfil the functions that are expected from it by the member states. For this reason, the functions that member states expect the SCO to perform in the field of security are identified in the first place, and then, it has been discussed how and to what extent the organization performs these functions under changing global and regional conditions. These security functions are ensuring an accord between the Central Asian policies pursued by China and Russia and the inclusion of Central Asian members in the accord, combating transnational threats, and the exclusion of the West from Central Asia. It can be observed that the first function has become the most important contribution of the SCO to regional security over time because China and Russia have pursued diverging policies towards the region and an asymmetry in favour of China has emerged in their bilateral relations. This study has also stated that the functions of the SCO are interconnected and affect each other. The findings of this study support the opinion that an evaluation of a security institution’s contribution to regional security should take into account the region-specific conditions in addition to the level of integration in the regional organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes a critical look at the current state of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute in light of the recent escalation between China and Japan. The article's central thesis is that the practical significance of the dispute has diminished considerably due to developments in the security and economic spheres. Rather, the dispute continues to exist and escalate because of the domestic political interests of the respective governments. This recognition is important to manage the dispute effectively, to avoid hyperbolic arguments about the dispute's conflict potential, and similarly to avoid undue comparisons with the South China Sea. This article adopts a realist, rational-choice based approach to demonstrate the diminishing nature of the security and economic significance of the islands, which underpins a decreasing rationale for actively seeking an alteration of the status quo. The question of why the dispute continues to escalate is highlighted in the article's examination of how the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and the Chinese Communist Party use the islands as a political symbol to pursue their own domestic and regional political agenda, in a way only tangentially connected to the actual dispute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power transition theory seems to imply that war between the United States and the rising China is inevitable. However, in this article it is explained that a peaceful power transition is possible. While there is uncertainty for China to successfully catch up with the United States, the future regional power transition scenarios suggest that the United States should make an effort to maintain power preponderance over China. To do that, the United States has to expand its new alliance partnerships and to efficiently manage its existing regional alliance system through its "pivot to Asia" policy. In that sense, the U.S. efforts to encourage Japan to become a "normal" state to share a larger military burden and to introduce the missile defense system in the region, including the THAAD system, to the Korean Peninsula would be helpful for the United States. In addition, inducing China to be less dissatisfied with the status quo is crucial for regional stability. The United States should encourage its allies and friends in the region to increase their economic interdependence with China and to participate actively in the China-led regional economic institutions such as the AIIB. While maintaining power preponderance, inducing China to be less dissatisfied with the status quo is one answer that the power transition theory provides for the United States to peacefully manage the era of the rising China in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a tense security situation, the uncertainties related to withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and the increased activities of its competitors (Pakistan and China), India has not substantially stepped up its security governance engagement in Afghanistan. In this article, I explain India's hesitant policy as a factor of domestic-level threat assessments, international pressures, and the risk-averse character of Indian foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China which is emerging as a significant regional power with the phenomenal growth in its economic and other security sectors, is trying to take the potential advantage of its locational benefit. Opening up its economy, improving bilateral and multilateral relations, resolving disputes amicably, assisting others by way of investments etc. and trying to keep up with peaceful co-existence principle, are some of its image building initiatives. Apart from this, China has been focusing on to invest in and access to Central Asian resources, particularly, hydrocarbon in view of its growing energy demand. In addition to re-drawing its regional policy and strategy owing to some recent developments on its western borders, Beijing is trying its best to strike a balance between the fast changing developments and its strategic interests in Central Asia which is seen as one of the best alternative for its energy accomplishments. This article focuses on China's strategic engagements with Central Asian states, particularly, in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. After analysing various compulsions and threat perceptions caused by the un-accounted nuclear fissile materials and nuclear weapons in Central Asia, particularly, in Kazakhstan, the paper talks about bilateral military and security cooperation, confidence-building measures within the framework of SCO, bilateral economic engagements and energy cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a regional organization, whose importance derives from its attempt to consolidate itself not only in this area as the most significant, but to perform counterweight functions to external powers which maintain geostrategic interests in the organization's area of influence. This aspiration arises, as will be demonstrated in the course of this work, from the political, economic, military, cultural and social wills of states like China and Russia, which intend, through their shared hegemony, to position themselves as decision-making agents in the international system, able to counteract the hegemonic power derived from the end of the Cold War (USA) and one of its main allies (EU), which act in the framework of NATO. Changes in the structure of the international system, in the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world, added to the redefinitions of safety and the expanding of the agenda that is derived from this concept, have also played an important role in shaping the sco as a new actor in the international system, in such a way that it is possible to verify the claims of Russia and China, which are developed in the framework of the sco, as will be discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article analyzes the SCO problems, possibilities of broadening the organization, and the key parameters of trilateral interaction of Russia, India and China (RIC) in the context of the integration opportunities of the SCO. The article also reviews the basic assessments of the development prospects of the organization by Russian experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a much-needed conceptual analysis of China's emerging international agency in Central Asia. In particular it engages with the apparent susceptibility of Central Asian states to China's normative power. The contention is that the emphasis on the dynamics of international socialization offers a relevant framework for evaluating Beijing's capacity to engage regional states. By relying on its normative power, China has gradually attracted Central Asia into its sphere of influence through the promotion of various initiatives for regional cooperation consolidated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Such conceptualization of Beijing's conditioning propensity reflects upon China's international role(s) in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]