BRICS and the SCO: Let A Thousand Poles Bloom

[unhappycamper]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/BRICS-and-the-SCO-Let-A-T-by-Conn-Hallinan-Brics_International_Negotiation_Policies-141010-809.html



BRICS and the SCO: Let A Thousand Poles Bloom
By Conn Hallinan
OpEdNews Op Eds 10/10/2014 at 22:37:32

At the very moment that the Americans and their allies are trying to squeeze Russia and Iran with a combination of economic sanctions and political isolation, alternative poles of power are emerging that soon may present a serious challenge to the U.S. dominated world that emerged from the end of the Cold War.

This past summer, the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- created an alternative to the largely U.S. controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) added 1.6 billion people to its rolls.

The BRICS construction of a Contingent Reserve Arrangement will give its members' emergency access to foreign currency, which might eventually dethrone the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The creation of a development bank will make it possible to by-pass the IMF for loans, thus avoiding the organization's onerous austerity requirements.

Less than a month after the BRICS' declaration of independence from the current strictures of world finance, the SCO -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- approved India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia for membership in the organization. It was the single largest expansion of the economic cooperation and security-minded group in its history, and it could end up diluting the impact of sanctions currently plaguing Moscow over the Ukraine crisis and Teheran over its nuclear program.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. So, which of them do we attack first?