The struggle between norms and the international organisation: A case study of India in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

Abstract

The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the objective of India’s joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The significance of this research lies in finding the correlation between the norms adopted by the organisation and the real reason for a country’s joining that organisation. Similarly, special attention has been paid to the concept of international organisations as norm disseminators. The paper first discusses the normative theory of international relations and tries to bridge it with international organisations (IOs). Additionally, the paper assesses the role played by norms in driving international organisations or vice versa. The main argument is that India has adopted a cooperation and competition approach to the SCO, considering its bitter relations with China and Pakistan. This is a qualitative study that considers primary and secondary sources to connect the theoretical understanding with the empirical study.

Keywords

• shanghai cooperation organisation (sco)
• india
• china
• pakistan
• international organisation
• norms