Publication Date
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Liam Anderson (Committee Chair), Chad Atkinson (Committee Member), Pramod Kantha (Committee Member), Laura Luehrmann (Advisor)
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Abstract
According to the balance of power concept, nations tend to unite for opposing a hegemon with an equal force. Therefore, for the leading position of the US and its ability to project power globally, there should be an opposite and equal reaction from the other emerging power centers.
Since the collapse of the USSR, the hegemonic position of the United States has been unchallenged. However, there is a possibility that it might be counterbalanced in future by the growing political influence of emerging powers like Russia and China, which have already succeeded in countering the US influence in some parts of Eurasia through the mechanism known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
This study analyzes whether the SCO is an alliance directed against the United States and whether it has a potential to become a counterweight to the hegemony of the US. The results of this thesis research will show that the SCO is a regional alliance intended to restrain the political and economic influence of the United States in the post-soviet space. In other words, this study will demonstrate that the SCO exists as a form of "soft" counterbalance against the US on a regional level.
Page Count
131
Department or Program
Department of Political Science
Year Degree Awarded
2011
Copyright
Copyright 2011, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
