CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Popovic, Milos |
|---|---|
| Title | Keeping Friends Close, and Their Oil Closer: Rethinking the Role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in China's Strive for Energy Security in Kazakhstan |
| Summary | It is generally acknowledged that Beijing’s bilateral oil dealings pertaining to the construction of the Atyrau-Alashankou pipeline comprise the backbone of China’s strive for energy security in Kazakhstan. Against the backdrop of a widespread scholarly claim that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) plays no role in this endeavor, this thesis argues that Beijing acts as a security-seeker to bind both Kazakhstan and Russia into energy cooperation within the organization. Acting as a regional forum through which China channels and reinforces its oil dealings, I argue that the SCO corrects the pitfalls of a bilateral approach which elicits the counter-balancing of Chinese activities by Astana and Moscow who are concerned with the distribution of gains. Putting to a test differing hypothesis by rationalist IR theories, I find that the SCO approach enables China to assure both actors about its benign intentions and maximize gains on a bilateral level as expected by defensive neorealism. |
| Supervisor | Matteo Fumagalli |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/popovic_milos.pdf |
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