The Role of the Sco in Countering the Terrorism in the Countries of Central Asia

Abstract

Terrorism is one of the main threats to human security in the modern world. Increased activity of terrorist underground in Central Asian countries and deteriorating situation in Afghanistan raises the problem of terrorism to a new level and calls for assistance of international and regional organisations in addressing this issue. With the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the new political leadership coming to power in the country in 2021, extremely pessimistic scenarios are emerging. There is a high probability of aggravation of regional challenges and threats in the form of terrorism, drug smuggling, illegal migration and humanitarian catastrophe.

The SCO, being an important element of the Eurasian security architecture, has a good potential to counter these threats. Over the years of the SCO's existence, the organisation has developed a solid legislative framework and established coordination mechanisms to counter regional threats. The national interests and security of the SCO member states are directly related to the situation in Afghanistan. The central goal of the SCO is directly related to countering and combating the "three evils": terrorism, separatism and extremism. The relevance of this paper is connected with the growth of radicalisation in the Central Asian region, so the proposed article analyses the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in countering terrorism in the countries of the Central Asian region, examines the history of the origin and emergence of terrorism in the region, and details the key areas of the organisation. The aim of the article is to assess the potential of the SCO in terms of responding to new security challenges of the member states, primarily in the Central Asian space. To achieve the goal, the following research methods were used: theoretical and methodological analysis, descriptive method and content analysis.