The Impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Central Asia’s Security

This paper tries to address the impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Central Asian security. This organization was established on April 26, 1996 to settle security and territorial disputes between China and Russia and Central Asian countries (other than Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). After the accession of Uzbekistan to this assembly, the level of the organization was promoted, and its geographic scope has been expanded in the following years by the membership of new countries. Although significant changes have been made and economic issues have been raised in the process of developments in this regional security cooperation, this organization has paid attention to security-military disputes and problems. The main question of the paper is how does the Shanghai Cooperation Organization play a role in the Central Asia’s security? This paper fully addresses the impact of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Central Asia, and the effects of this organization on the security and stability of Central Asia with the settlement of regional conflicts, such as fighting against terrorism, separatism and extremism, drug and arms trade, organizational crimes, concerns about insecurity and domestic instability, and in particular the occurrence of color revolutions in countries and confronting with American influence and unilateralism.