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February 08, 2012
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June 29, 2010

Regional Security: Organizations and Architecture

In an increasingly regionalized world, stable security architectures have long been the chimera of regional integration. Whether in Central Asia, the Persian Gulf or Africa, local rivalries, longstanding mistrust, and interference from outside powers have often undermined ambitious plans for transforming regional security organizations into stable security architectures. But if these organizations have not lived up to the expectations of their champions and critics, they have made important contributions and no small amount of progress.

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Feature articles in this theme:

Sustainability is Elusive for Persian Gulf Regional Security System

By Brian Katulis 29 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

If there were ever a strong candidate for a reformed and self-sustaining regional security architecture, the Persian Gulf region today would be it. Given the interests at stake, the world has every reason to work toward de-escalating tensions and security threats in the region. Yet to date, divisions among countries in the region combined with tensions from global powers asserting their own interests have complicated any efforts to develop a more coherent and functional security system in the Gulf.

Organized Complementarity and African Regional Security Cooperation

By Benedikt Franke 29 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

With the end of the Cold War, the states of Africa were galvanized into regional security cooperation in the late 1990s, with much progress achieved since then. These positive developments not only raise the question of how the continent's states managed to break with their longstanding inability to provide an institutional basis for inter-African security cooperation, but also to what extent their experiences hold lessons that could be applied in other regions.

Eurasian Security Institutions: The CSTO and SCO

By Richard Weitz 29 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

Perhaps the most surprising feature of the protracted crisis in Kyrgyzstan is what has not happened: Neither of Eurasia's two preeminent regional security institutions, the CSTO and the SCO, have coordinated a military intervention in that country. Despite expectations, neither organization has yet become a modern version of the Warsaw Pact, using military and police power to keep its client regimes in power.