ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the creation of the SCO, its organization and legal bases, and the stages in its institutional development from 2001 to the present day. An attempt is made to separate the stages in the SCO’s evolution and to characterize the main milestones in its development. To analyze the SCO’s institutional development, its legal basis and organizational structure are researched. It is shown that the SCO’s modern organizational structure, formed over a long and contradictory evolution, contains a range of subsystems, which, along with its foundational principles, guarantee the Organization’s ability to develop in the future. It is concluded that multilevel interactions in regional security and cooperation can be established on the platform offered by the SCO with the simultaneous development of both multilateral and bilateral formats. The possibility of alternatives as the SCO develops will depend on the strategies of the Organization’s leading actors.
