Regional Cooperation, Transborder Threats and Human Rights: A Comparison of the CSTO, SCO, OSCE, and NATO PfP in Central Asia/Eurasia.

In this paper I investigate four regional multi-lateral security assistance and treaty entities’ activities in Eurasia generally, and specifically in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). I pay particular attention to both differences and similarities in how these entities, and their respective member states, balance effective management of transborder threats (especially counterterrorism and counternarcotics activities), and human rights considerations. In the first section of my paper I examine how the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PFP) have developed into regional coordinating entities designed to support member states development of capacities and policies to deal with transborder threats. Each of these organizations have not only served as a forum for discussions and policy harmonization (or attempted harmonization) between member states, but has also served as an umbrella organizations for coordinating joint counterterrorism and counternarcotic operations, training exercises, and the distribution of other forms of security assistance and training. Bilateral and multilateral joint counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations and training exercises are just one example of joint counterterrorism and law enforcement operations in the region, among various constellations of member states of these entities. This paper will be based on a series of four case studies examining how each of these regional multi-lateral security assistance and treaty organization have evolved since the collapse of the Soviet state and alliance systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, until the present (early 2008). These cases will seek to examine not only the evolution of these organizations in a rapidly shifting and incredibly complex security environment spanning the collapse of a major power (the Soviet state), the “global” and other “wars on terror,” and the resurgence of active peer competitors (Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China) to the United States within the context of a security environment defined and shaped by the nexus of interests defined by these overlapping and at times competitive and antagonistic multilateral entities. A key goal of these papers is to examine the impact of these multilateral entities on Central Asian member states national and internal security institutions, historical and contemporary critical incidents, and evaluations by various NGOs and other entities about how regional cooperation activities and multilateral and bilateral security activities either reinforce, or erode, human rights in member states in Central Asia specifically, and Eurasia more generally. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]