SCO conducts final stage of joint anti-terror drill

As much as the new rival to the European Union and the United States, the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) keeps saying that their "organization" is purely on an economic level, the increase of military cooperation is undoubtedly an interesting development between its member countries. In particular the increased cooperation between Chinese and Russian military.

Source: (Xinhua English Website)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/17/content_6553596.htm

Considering the sort of build up and cooperation between the SCO's members, this organization could very well create the next major economic and military power in the world; in addition the the EU and the United States.

Historically this organization was initially created to counteract the number of countries sympathetic to United States immediately after the 9/11 attack, and to stop the infiltration/encroachment of American army and air bases in the East Asian region. However it has since grown into a lot more than a mere bloc of like minded nations, it can now be viewed as the "Asian Union" as it is comprised of all the major players in the continent of Asia (other than Korea (which would be a likely candidate to join) and Japan (impossible to join due to bad blood between it and the current member nations)).

Due to the development of the SCO: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and observer nations India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mongolia have created unprecedented cooperation in an economic standpoint. However I have to point out that the two "primary" nations in this endeavor China and Russia are in many ways buying the support of our "allies"; China via the use of its vast foreign reserves, and Russia through its North Seas petroleum deposits and sales of its vast military arsenal. So the SCO can clearly be seen as a skewed partnership, much like how the EU is played with Britain, Germany, France, and Italy being the dominant players. Only that in this case the amount of power (both economic and military) controlled by China and Russia far exceeds that of the other member nations, hence they become virtual subjects to Russia and China.

In a way this can be seen as China and Russia's method of coercing and controlling the other regional powers into doing their bidding; much like United States when it flexes its military muscles to control Iraq and Afghanistan (and numerous Central American nations), only without all the unnecessary death and destruction. This method is so successful that even known opponents with differing religious background India (predominantly Hindu) and Pakistan (predominantly Muslim) are hoping to get on board. This shows that instead of exercising military might and denunciations, the use of financial gain and the use of soft diplomacy does a much better job of maintaining amicable relations.

From a political standpoint China and Russia's strategy in maintaining control and stability in the region and reducing the likely hood of Muslim terrorism is far more successful than that of the United States with its debacles on both Afghanistan and Iraq. The SCO's method of soft diplomacy rather than pure military might is winning over nations, regardless of religion, gaining support of even fundamentalist Islamic nation such as Pakistan and Iran. This is something that the United States and U should study and adopt, rather than continuing their current strategy of hunting down any potential "threats" to their dominant power.

Read up more on SCO: (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Cooperation_Organization