Ryssland och Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Sammanfattning: This essay describes the will of states to cooperate in organizations so that they can respond towards relative power changes between them. The focus of the essay is Russia’s interests to cooperate in Central Asia in the organization Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). I use Kenneth Waltz theory about defensive realism and Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye’s theory about interdependence to describe in the analysis in what context states act and what forces that can affect their cooperation. The method of doing so is a descriptive one that is constructed in two parts. Firstly I describe different Russian interest in the SCO after that I use three key concepts based on the theories; Power, Cooperation and Interdependence to analyze the Russian earnings and costs for the cooperation. The result of this analyze identifies three main areas of Russian interests for cooperation in the SCO; Central Asia as a region, the Russian – US relations, Russian – Chinese relations and different aspects on the cooperation with regards to the key concepts of the essay.