BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization as Complementary Institutional and Geopolitical Forms?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the scope of institutional and geopolitical complementarity between the BRICS group and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This framing of the problem seems important in the context of the dynamic changes taking place in the contemporary world system. The United States, the world’s largest power and a key pillar of the current international order, is attempting to redefine its place and role within it in relation to the growing Asian powers. China, India, and Eurasian Russia, pursuing their vision of a polycentric world without American hegemony, are forming alliances, establishing and strengthening new formats of cooperation with a global (BRICS) and regional (SCO) reach. These entities differ in part in their membership composition, geographic scope, nature, goals, degree of institutionalisation, and origins. The BRICS group emerged at a time when the SCO was already in existence and had already undergone the first stage of its evolution – from a consultative forum of five states to a fully-fledged regional international organisation. Both cooperation formats currently have ten members, including four common states: China, India, Iran, and Russia. The overall goals of these structures boil down to three issues: a polycentric international system, an alternative global financial system independent of the West, and a profound reform of the UN. However, numerous contradictions and conflicts of interest exist between the member states of both BRICS and the SCO, sometimes leading to heated confrontations. The highly dynamic current international situation makes it difficult to clearly determine the future of both entities – whether mutual relations will evolve toward a loose tactical alliance or a genuine strategic partnership. However, it is possible to identify key trends, tendencies, and processes. The scientific methods employed in this article include comparative analysis, institutional analysis, and power structure (geopolitical) analysis.