6 Response to Regional Security Crises
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Eva Seiwert
Abstract
This chapter explores the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s reaction to and proposals for settling three major issues that occurred in the wider SCO region between 2001 and 2023, namely the Kyrgyzstan revolutions of 2005 and 2010, the instability in Afghanistan, and the Iran nuclear issue. The aim is to understand the norms of interstate and intra-state conflicts that the SCO invokes in the context of specific cases directly affecting its member and associate states and clarifying to what extent the SCO’s actual policies adhere to the norms endorsed in the organization’s official documents. Despite their differences, the SCO has reverted to similar arguments in all three crises, which provides a clue to the rules that the organization wants to see prevailing in international relations. These rules are summarized under the following headings: (1) unique competence of regional actors to resolve regional issues; (2) support of ruling governments; (3) multilateral solutions under the guidance of the United Nations; and (4) primacy of peaceful multilateral solutions over military action. They can be traced back and correspond to the norms and concepts the SCO has institutionalized in its constitutive documents, above all the principle of non-interference.
Abstract
This chapter explores the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s reaction to and proposals for settling three major issues that occurred in the wider SCO region between 2001 and 2023, namely the Kyrgyzstan revolutions of 2005 and 2010, the instability in Afghanistan, and the Iran nuclear issue. The aim is to understand the norms of interstate and intra-state conflicts that the SCO invokes in the context of specific cases directly affecting its member and associate states and clarifying to what extent the SCO’s actual policies adhere to the norms endorsed in the organization’s official documents. Despite their differences, the SCO has reverted to similar arguments in all three crises, which provides a clue to the rules that the organization wants to see prevailing in international relations. These rules are summarized under the following headings: (1) unique competence of regional actors to resolve regional issues; (2) support of ruling governments; (3) multilateral solutions under the guidance of the United Nations; and (4) primacy of peaceful multilateral solutions over military action. They can be traced back and correspond to the norms and concepts the SCO has institutionalized in its constitutive documents, above all the principle of non-interference.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Figures and Tables iv
- List of Abbreviations v
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- Conceptual Framework: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an International Society 11
- The Emergence and Nature of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization 28
- Conceptualizing a New International Society: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Flagship Concepts 54
- Targeting Global International Society: China as Norm Entrepreneur 75
- Response to Regional Security Crises 94
- Response to Security Crises outside the Immediate Orbit 122
- Enlargement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s ‘Circle of Friends’ 140
- Conclusion 175
- Appendix 187
- References 188
- Index 242
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of Figures and Tables iv
- List of Abbreviations v
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- Conceptual Framework: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an International Society 11
- The Emergence and Nature of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization 28
- Conceptualizing a New International Society: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Flagship Concepts 54
- Targeting Global International Society: China as Norm Entrepreneur 75
- Response to Regional Security Crises 94
- Response to Security Crises outside the Immediate Orbit 122
- Enlargement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s ‘Circle of Friends’ 140
- Conclusion 175
- Appendix 187
- References 188
- Index 242
