The Position of the New Security Concept in China`s Foreign Policy – Case Study on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Abstract

This paper analyzes the position of the New Security Concept (NSC) in China’s foreign policy. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been selected as a case study, because in China’s Position Paper on the New Security Concept the SCO has been announced as the best implementation practice of the NSC. This paper is made of three parts. The first part represents theoretical platform for explaining the NSC and the reasons why it was introduced by policy-makers of the Chinese Communist Party. The research relies on concepts offered by moral realism, relational theory and theory of institutional balancing. The second part tackles the institutional development of the SCO, as the framework for exploring by which manners and in which areas SCO’s member states/partners deepen and strengthen their cooperation and in which areas the cooperation is lacking. The third part of the paper tackles the practical nexus between the NSC and the SCO, focusing on Peace Missions, Xiamen and Solidarity – the SCO joint antiterrorist and military drills for countering geographical and cyber terrorism, separatism and religious extremism (“three evils”).

Keywords

• relational theory
• strategic credibility
• “non-other”
• shanghai cooperation organization
• cyber security