A New Journey to the West: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Chinese Foreign Policy
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Existing literature has attempted to define the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and determine its role in both Chinese and Russian foreign policy. Unfortunately, misunderstandings of the SCO as a security institution mean that efforts to situate the SCO within foreign policies are mistaken. Some observers have described the SCO as an alliance against the United States and other external forces. Others consider the SCO to be a security management institution balancing Chinese and Russian interests in Central Asia. In reality, the SCO does not fit neatly into any categories. Over the course of its history first as the Shanghai Five mechanism and then as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the developing institution has attempted to perform the functions of both an alliance and a security management institution. However, the lack of institutionalization, whether purposeful or due to competition between member-states, has prevented the SCO from developing into either option. At the same time, Russia’s obstruction of Chinese interests through the SCO have led China to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative as an unconstrained exercise of its power. This raises the possibility of an increasingly competitive, zero-sum “New Great Game” over Central Asia between China and Russia. The relative power disparity between China and Russia puts this competition in Beijing’s favor, but the exercise of power unrestricted by legitimate institutions may well provoke opposition from regional partners. A stable regional order that preserves China’s place in the sun will ultimately require Beijing to accept limited constraints and create legitimate institutions.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 23, 2017 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Chao, Ken-Ben |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Blacker, Coit D. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation |
Subjects
| Subject | Center for International Security and Cooperation |
|---|---|
| Subject | international institutions |
| Subject | security institutions |
| Subject | alliances |
| Subject | Central Asia |
| Subject | Belt and Road Initiative |
| Subject | Chinese foreign policy |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Chao, Ken-Ben. (2017). A New Journey to the West: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Chinese Foreign Policy. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/cc473bz5032
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- kenbenc@stanford.edu
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