Study On The Performance Of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

After being established in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been consecutively operating for 15 years. As one of the pivotal outcomes that stem from re-adjustment of international security order during Post-Cold War era, SCO is responsible for maintaining regional stability and promoting trans-border economic development. However, in recent period the effectiveness of SCO, being regional international organization, has been under blunt criticism amongst the academia, since evident divergences in economic, cultural and religious aspects are not efficiently alleviated as initially expected. Some even utters following bold claim that SCO should be erased from the official list of international organizations, due to the fact that its original objectives have been severely obscured.In spite of numerous mistrusts and misgivings, SCO shall not be alienated from the array of regional governance mechanisms, instead, it is expected to execute more power and withstand more challenging voices. From the global level, several waves of financial crises fundamentally transformed not only international political and economic arrangements, but social and psychological well-being of people. Consequently, a new tendency that regional and global powers were being redistributed and the role of developing economies became increasingly crucial has emerged abreast with the deepening globalization after 1980s. From the regional perspective, security circumstances in Central Asia are far from sanguine, largely because non-traditional security threats obstruct inter-governmental cooperation and plague regional peace. In this region, the amount of economic and cultural collaboration is apparently insufficient, so no spill-over effect is at the place to engender the virtuous circle. For China, SCO accounts for one of the few international organizations that are established by its initiative and within which it can cast substantial influence; moreover, SCO is indispensible to stabilize the complex situation in China’s western border. One Belt and One Road once again emphasized the strategic significance of Central Asia in China’s neighborhood policy planning, and this strategy also specified SCO’s objectives in detailed fashion. Meanwhile, in the eyes of Russia and other four CentralAsianRepublics, their expectations for SCO have not significantly altered in comparison with their initial ones. Therefore, the academically worthwhile research issue is not about whether SCO should further exist, but focuses on the assessment of its effectiveness and viable recommendations for its institutional reinvigoration.Accordingly, this master dissertation attempts to reveal answers to two fundamental research questions:whether SCO currently stands up with its ideal shape, and if not, how to improve its performance. To achieve this, this paper will evaluate the performance of SCO in qualitative and quantitative manners after determining relevant indicators and variables, based on International Organization Theory in combination with Oslo-Potsdam Solution, which is widely applied in the field of international organizations effectiveness investigation. Besides, the author tries to shed some light on the policymaking by reviewing the SCO performance outcome that will result from the analytical model.