Irans full membership in the SCO:Economic and Security implications

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a symbol of regional integration in post-Cold War Eurasian landmass. The developments of SCO demonstrates the importance of power politics and relative gains in forming to the patterns in which members of the organization behave. However, after nearly two decades, Iran's efforts to become a permanent member of the SCO have paid off. The formal process of Iran's accession has begun and this country will become a permanent member of the organization soon. Now, the question is what range of security and economic consequences will Iran's permanent membership in the SCO have? This article seeks to provide an answer to this question by using the conceptual framework of realism in the analysis of international regimes and referring to the documents that countries needs to sign for permanent membership in SCO. The findings of the paper show that power relations are the focal variable in creating the Shanghai security and economic regime and relative gains have played a key role in shaping the behavioral model of the members of the organization. Affected by this pattern of behavior, the institutionalization of this organization has been weak. Therefore, Iran's permanent membership in the SCO creates binding commitments for the country only in the field of counter-terrorism. In other areas of security and economics, cooperation is not binding and is a function of consensus among members.