Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is one of the main regional institutions in which Iran may utilize, with its effective presence in it, from its instrumental and rightfulness capacities to increase its interests. Despite the micro interests, one of the macro advantages of effective membership in the organization is the relative participation in regulating the border arrangements of the country's north. In spite of these clear advantages, existing trends indicate that Tehran doesn't an effective role in it. Among various factors, applying single way approach rather pragmatic one and its reliance on "prior assumptions" such as substantive opposition of the SCO to the West, "assumptions" of perpetual "hostility" between Moscow and Washington and considering Russia as a "strategic partner" for Iran are of main reasons in this failure. With the help of "friends" in the organization, as a consequent, Iran has been seeking a counter front against the West. Contrary, relying on the principle of "pragmatism" in its foreign policy, Russia has always been simply considering SCO and its members as a means for securing its own “real” interests. Comparing Tehran with Moscow’s approach toward SCO with a descriptive explanatory method, the article is to analyze the cause of Iran’s failure in its presence.

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