Glo-regionalism in Energy Cooperation Approaches of the SCO Region

摘要

In twentieth century, especially during the Cold War era, the two ideas of Nationalism and Internationalism were the main competitor approaches in different schools of thought in the field of international studies. However, global integration between states and nations from economic, cultural, and communicational aspects has created a new magnificent world which is more integrated and the interests of political units are more incorporated. Based on this new world order, the major rival trends in the world arena are two recent dominant approaches of globalism and regionalism. The appearance of the successful regionalism regimes in Europe and also in the South East Asian region while they have tried to keep their correlations with the global trends, have prepared a suitable model for other regions to construct regional unities in a globalized framework. This paper aims to examine one of the most important issues in the SCO region, - the exploration and transportation of energy - in the framework of the regionalism and globalism approaches. Regarding to this matter, the outlook of the energy cooperation between the SCO countries and the position of the other powerful players in the region will be analyzed. The opportunities and challenges confronted with the producers and consumers of this strategic commodity to achieve energy security in this region also will be discussed.