Coming into age of the SCO

DAVID SPEEDIE, Director of U.S. Global Engagement Program at the Carnegie Council states that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that was established in 2001 could no longer be dismissed as a sub-regional force given its toehold in Central Asia and potential to exert influence over 20% of the world's proven oil reserves and 40% of natural gas resources. In a Carnegie Council article, "Good Neighbours? The Shanghai Co-operation Organization" he concedes that a potential inclusion of Iran in the SCO would result in the organization being seen as an anti-American alliance and echo NATO's eastward expansion in the 90s and calls for increasing NATO's engagement with the SCO.