Abstract:
In twentieth century, especially during the Cold War era, the two ideas of Nationalism and
Internationalism were the main competitor approaches in different schools of thought in the
field of international studies. However, global integration between states and nations from
economic, cultural, and communicational aspects has created a new magnificent world
which is more integrated and the interests of political units are more incorporated. Based on
this new world order, the major rival trends in the world arena are two recent dominant
approaches of globalism and regionalism. The appearance of the successful regionalism
regimes in Europe and also in the South East Asian region while they have tried to keep their
correlations with the global trends, have prepared a suitable model for other regions to
construct regional unities in a globalized framework.
This paper aims to examine one of the most important issues in the SCO region - the
exploration and transportation of energy - in the framework of regionalism and globalism
approaches. Regarding to this matter, the outlook of the energy cooperation between the
SCO countries and the position of the other powerful players in the region will be analyzed.
The opportunities and challenges confronted with the producers and consumers of this
strategic commodity to achieve energy security in this region also will be discussed.
Machine summary:
: Regionalism, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Eurasia, China, Russia, Central Asia, Energy * E-mail: eKolaee@ut.
Regarding to these realities, it seems that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as the most powerful and united regional mechanism can play an important role to improve the security of access to energy resources in this region for both energy producing and consuming countries.
The SCO started to delve into the energy sphere in 2004, when members adopted an action plan that established a basis for cooperation between the organization's three energy-producing states (Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) and the three consumer countries (China, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan).
Judging by the experiences of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) where the conflict between India and Pakistan has brought the entire organization into deadlock, both China and Russia will probably think twice before admitting these countries, especially as the Central Asian member states have the destabilizing effect of Pakistan’s support of the Taliban fresh in mind.
Considering the growing complementarities between India, Pakistan and China on the one hand and Russia, Iran and the Central Asian states on the other in the energy sector, there is truly a need for a multilateral forum where energy infrastructure and trade and transit coordination may be discussed.
And in the field of energy, while the three countries of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, along with Iran and Russia, are considered as the major oil and gas producers in Eurasia, other members of the organization, such as China, India, and Pakistan, are among the largest energy consumers in the world.