#10. Shutting Out the U.S.

Aug. 16: The annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, affirms the principle that security in Central Asia should be in the hands of existing regional organizations. It also staged major war games involving troops from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The significance of the group, though, is that it unites China and Russia together with the neighborhood's former Soviet republics, and includes as observers the likes of Afghanistan and Iran. The U.S. is very conspicuously not invited into a group whose governments are largely authoritarian in nature, but which the U.S. has sought to cultivate. The SCO's composition and increasing assertiveness reflects a shifting balance of power in the region, and perhaps globally.