New Directions, Perspectives, and Challenges
Edited by Michael Fredholm
- Published:
- Pages: 338 pp., illus.
- Series number: 2
About the book
- First study to properly treat a key regional grouping in Asia.
- Explores both security and energy issues across the region.
- Considers geopolitical obstacles to the SCO’s long-term viability.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has developed into a key regional security group in Asia, its member states representing no less than “half of humanity”.
Alarmists believe that the SCO is making itself into a NATO of the East, thus posing a long-term threat to the West. Moreover, several members are key players in economic development and energy production, hence political developments within the SCO can no longer be ignored by the global market. Even so, the organization has long been disregarded by political leaders in the West and is seldom reported in Western media or analysed in academic works. As such, this ground-breaking volume with contributors from across the region and beyond will be a key reference for many specialists and academics working on Asian affairs.
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About the author
Michael Fredholm is an historian who has published extensively on Eurasia’s history, security policies and energy sector developments. He has worked as an independent academic advisor to governments and many others for more than two decades and regularly has been called upon to train Swedish and Coalition intelligence officers of the military contingent in Afghanistan.
Go to author pageReviews
“Due to the fact that the book contains both contributions with more practical and with purely scientific approach it may be recommended for practitioners, diplomats, specialists and academics. It will be a useful guide for those who have general interest or make their first steps in the field of Central Asian politics.
“Due to the fact that the book contains both contributions with more practical and with purely scientific approach it may be recommended for practitioners, diplomats, specialists and academics. It will be a useful guide for those who have general interest or make their first steps in the field of Central Asian politics. It can be easily read and understood, as all essays have logical structure, are presented in very clear and concise way. One of the most positive features of the book is that it contains articles from authors with different background in terms of nationality, experience and field of study within the Social Sciences and the Humanities which gives the reader the whole spectrum of analysis about the organization, its member states and the diverse issues and developments SCO faces.”
"The meticulous study of the SCO provided by the volume edited by Fredholm ensures that the contributions make available a comprehensive overview of the institutional history and practices of the organisation.
"The meticulous study of the SCO provided by the volume edited by Fredholm ensures that the contributions make available a comprehensive overview of the institutional history and practices of the organisation.
(…) The book offers a detailed account of the organisational structure of the SCO. The vivid account depicts not only the aims and intentions of the organisation, but also illustrates the interplay between its permanent and non-permanent institutional arrangements. The picture that emerges is of an elaborate interaction between frameworks for informal discussion and regularised institutional processes. Thus, by demonstrating the complexity and diversity of institutions, initiatives, and interactions, the volume edited by Fredholm makes conspicuous that the SCO is much more than a geopolitical tool for either Moscow or Beijing.
(…) Fredholm’s collection distinguishes itself by devoting an entire section on the motivations and rationale of the individual member states of the organisation. Such a parallel assessment has definitely been missing in the literature and offers a much-needed insight into the involvement and input of the Central Asian republics in the agenda of the SCO."