Comparative International Relations
On May 15, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news site published an article about how policy making in Iran, Russia, and China was intersecting. The problem for comparative politics teachers is that the article seemed mostly to be about international relations. In fact, the policy making process and the involvement of a variety of interests in the state is one of the keys to understanding government and politics. And foreign policy making (and the involvement of other states' policies) can be a good case study.This may well be another example of how the fuzzy border between the disciplines of comparative politics and international relations is sometimes a barrier to understanding both areas of study. And it's a reminder that we should take to heart the subtitle of Chip Hauss' textbook, "Domestic Responses to Global Challenges."
This topic also brings up another example of my own ignorance. I'd never heard of the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization" before reading this article.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site, "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental international organization founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001 by six countries, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan."
The SCO web site points to changes at the end of the Cold War as the motive for "...the 'Shanghai Five' mechanism [predecessor to the SCO], initially developed on the basis of strengthening trust and disarmament in border regions of China with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan."
The Web site of GlobalSecurity.org, explains one of the reasons SCO is not well known in the West: "Its working languages are Chinese and Russian."
Global Security goes on to describe that the activities of the SCO "...gradually extended from building up trust in the border regions to mutually beneficial cooperation in the political, security, diplomatic, economic, trade and other areas among the five states." It also notes that "Iran appears increasingly interested in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and form[ing] a powerful axis with its twin pillars, China and Russia, as a counterweight to ... US power... The SCO was initially set up as an open and nonaligned organization and it was not initially targeted at a third party. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui said [in 2004] that the ... organization is still very young and the six SCO members need to have further discussions before deciding whether or not to accept new members."
In any case, here are excerpts from the article and a link to the whole text:
Iran: Plans To Join Shanghai Group Seen As Bold Geopolitical Stroke
"Iran's recent announcement that it intends to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could complicate Western efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Iran now has observer status at the SCO, but it hopes membership could come as early as June. Although SCO membership is no foregone conclusion -- and does not include mutual defense pledges -- being inside the Shanghai 'club' could bring Tehran extra support from its two key members: Russia and China...
"Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mohammadi was quoted by ITAR-TASS and Xinhua news agencies as saying in April that his country hopes to join the SCO this summer. He said Iran is looking forward to reviewing the nuclear dispute with its SCO 'colleagues.'...
"Analyst Jean-Philippe Beja of the Center for International Studies and Research (CERI) in Paris said that formal SCO membership for Iran at this juncture would be a blow for the West.
"'Of course, it would be considered a provocation by the West -- by the United States and Europe, which are trying to isolate Iran and which are trying to get Russia and China to join them in a sanctions program [against Iran],' Beja said. 'If Iran is part of the SCO, it means it will be considered a legitimate partner both by Russia and China.'
"As it happens, Iran's aims in aligning itself with the SCO fit well with Chinese and Russian geo-strategic goals. Moscow and Beijing want to reduce the penetration of U.S. influence into Central Asia and the Middle East. In this context, Iran could serve as a bastion against further U.S. encroachment from the west.
"In addition, for China, access to Iran's vast energy resources is essential, and bringing Tehran into the Shanghai 'club' ensures that access.
"Analyst Alireza Nourizadeh is with the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London. He pointed out that there is a certain process of east-west "bidding" going on to attract Iran's attention... Nourizadeh said that '[Iranian President Mahmud] Ahmadinejad and the people around him ... believe that the only way for Iran to survive is to cooperate with China and the South-East Asian nations.'
"But a note of caution emerged today from the meeting in Shanghai of SCO foreign ministers. Tajikistan's Minister Talbak Nazarov said the question of Iranian membership is not being considered -- at least for the time being...
"The arrival of Iran as a member, along with prospectively India, Pakistan, and Mongolia -- all of which have observer status in the SCO -- could affect the fine balance in the organization between Russia and China..."
posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:31 AM
1 Comments:
Michael Harvey, writing from the UAE, sent along a link to a Boston Globe editorial about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
An anti-Bush alliance
May 21, 2006
"COUNTRIES large and small are rejecting President Bush's foreign policy by intimidation, and are banding together to counter the US superpower. The next example may come from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization...
"The Bush administration pretended to ignore last year's organization summit... But the organization's foreign ministers meeting in Shanghai last week discussed a plan to accept four new members: India, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Iran...
"Acceptance of Iran by the organization at the very moment when the Islamic Republic is defying the International Atomic Energy Agency -- and when China and Russia are blocking US efforts to have the United Nations Security Council approve sanctions on Iran -- suggests a tectonic shift in geopolitics...
Bringing Iran into the organization portends a dramatic new stage of strategic coordination between Russia and China...
Ironically, this is precisely what President Bush has pledged to prevent. The national security doctrine that Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have proclaimed in public rests upon a determination to discourage any combination of countries from mounting a challenge to the United States. By building a military force so awesome that no cluster of countries could even hope to match it -- and by demonstrating a willingness to stay clear of constraining international treaties and obligations -- administration hardliners planned to intimidate all potential challengers into meekly accepting Washington's dictates.
But after five years of trial and error, it is clear that the Bush doctrine is having the opposite effect...
The inclusion of new members envisaged by the organization's foreign ministers would not only bring together major exporters of oil and gas, Russia and Iran, with the fast-growing energy consumers China and India. It would also make Iran a member of a regional security organization that would include four other states that are established nuclear powers.
Having Iran inside an expanded Shanghai Cooperation Organization would only make Tehran's hardliners more impervious than they already are to US and European efforts to deflect Iran from its pursuit of nuclear weapons. And the enlarged organization would be a club dominated by undemocratic states, India and Mongolia being the exceptions...
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