New Regionalism in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

At the end of the Cold War, regionalism has attracted growing international attention along with globalization. The two approaches of “Old regionalism” and “new regionalism” could be of assistance in conducting an in-depth study. Evidence shows that old regionalism was viewed as a mechanism to reduce dependence on international economy. Meanwhile, some researchers of the new regionalism are of the opinion that in practice, regionalism has acquired new dimensions. Today, the governments make regional efforts that may overlap, stand in contrast or contradict each other. As one of the regions affected by this issue, Central Asian countries have taken steps toward regional convergence. To this end, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was established in 1996 by five countries of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Shanghai, as one of the important experiences of regional organizations. In its summits, the SCO member states introduced measures and policies ensuring security of Central Asia, supporting the trend of a multi-polar systemand democratization of the international system. The main question of this paper is “how is new Regionalism in SCO? In the light of the objectives of the organization, the author attempts to show that the SCO is being expanded along with the spread of globalization as one of the manifestations of the “new regionalism”.