In order to get ready for the SCO Summit, I want to give a kind of mini-history of collective security after the Warsaw Pact broke down in 1989 as it applies to Central Asia (and, inseparably, to the Caucasus). 

I realize that I do not have here a culturally-relevant illustration, (or for that matter, a weaponry-relevant picture, either) but the motto of the Musketeers was “all for one, and one for all” which encapsulates the purposes of collective security, if you think about it. 

In many ways, we can see the importance of collective security for security purposes in the years 1989 through 1997: as the Soviet Union fell apart, many pocket conflicts began to take place.  Collective security arrangements helped minimize this damage; in other places, such as the Former Yugoslavia and Tajikistan, collective security organizations such as NATO, the UN, and the CIS intervened to control the meltdown of civil order. 

However, the history of collective security and its intentions are also marked by dissension, power politics, good intentions fulfilled and good intention gone awry.  Conflicts between collective security agencies (and within them as well) complicated operations in the former Yugoslavia.  Many frozen conflicts still exist across the Caucasus.  Only Tajikistan has lost a peacekeeping office, and that only last week.

For many of these states, collective security facilitated the development of new alliances and the strengthening of old ones.  The sometimes-confusing name changes, consolidations, re-organizations, and abandonments of various organizations mark the progress that newly-independent states have shown.  Through these arrangements, Central Asian states have increased their facility in foreign relations and the development of friends, alliances, and trading partners.  Over time, then, it was inevitable that organizations changed character.

I’ve started a timeline page of collective security that I will be adding to over the next few days.  Go ahead and take a look: it's on the sidebar under “pages”.  Hopefully, like the bibliography page, it will be useful to students and Central Asia watchers.  I still have more to add, but, I think it's usable now for most purposes.

Other announcements: I’ll be updating the FPA Central Asia blogroll soon.  Unfortunately, Xinjiang Watch appears to have disappeared: it was a great blog, but I believe the collaborators have moved on to other venues.  Even though they’re gone, I admired their work and learned a lot from them.  Good luck, guys!

Other updates will be showing up soon.