Diplomatic World nummer 54

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consolidate the new regional cooperation process. In the
short term, there is dire need for a permanent forum for
discussing these vital issues of Central Asia and would
be representing a prerequisite step to the progress and
development of the region.
To ensure these plans are realised and successful, the
Uzbek government and its regional partners need the
support of international organizations. They will have
to convince them to move from the current competition
between great powers behind the different international
organizations into a cooperative agenda based on a balance
of the different sets of local interests. To achieve future
stability and reduce geopolitical rivalries at Eurasian
and global scale in a multipolar world, it is necessary to
manage and contain the centrifugal forces in the world
with a security architecture fully adapted to this new
emerging multipolar world. A new doctrine of multilateral
cooperation has to be initiated.
THE GEOPOLITICAL STAKES FOR EUROPE
AND EURASIA AS A WHOLE
The success of Central Asian cooperation is equally
important for the geopolitical interests of Europe. A quick
look at the map (Alliances and Major Zones of Instability in
a Multicentric World) illustrating the alliances in the World
and the major conflicts and potential instability zones
reveals and underlines the striking realities of today’s world.
First of all, the two major stability zones amid a world
drifting towards instability, conflicts and growing
uncertainty are the Euro-Atlantic space covered by NATO
and the Eurasian area covered by the Shanghai Cooperation
organization (SCO). On the margins of these two groupings,
conflicts and security threats can endanger these “Islands
of peace”. The danger of terrorism is already more and
more present in these two zones and it is therefore a crucial
objective to contain these fast growing internal security
threats coming from the crisis zones.