Comparative analysis of post-9/11 counter-terrorism efforts of North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Shanghai Cooperation Organization

This dissertation aims to comparatively analyze counter-terrorism (CT) efforts of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and to bring a fresh look beyond inter-block rivalry by adding a layer of complexity. The research question is what the CT efforts of NATO and SCO are after 9/11 terrorist attacks within specific sets of domains which are legal doctrine, organizational structure and military operations. These international organizations have been specifically chosen by taking their CT histories and member compositions into consideration. NATO is often called a Euro-Atlantic military alliance and SCO is considered a Eurasian security, political and economic organization. Yet, there are hardly any studies that analyze their CT comparatively. The research aims to fill this gap in the literature by providing a detailed analysis based on NATO and SCO CT efforts, comparatively. The comparative findings of the dissertation suggest that NATO and SCO made efforts to fight new security challenges, including terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 terrorist attacks because there are adaptations in legal doctrine, transformations in organizational structure and practices on the field to better combating terrorism. In addition to the main thesis of the research, some more arguments were presented in the dissertation. First of all, it was asserted that powerful members in NATO and SCO have leverage effect on CT efforts in all sets of domains and CT efforts are as successful as the contributions coming from these members. Secondly, both organizations are aware of the need for fighting with the conditions conducive to spread of terrorism, albeit SCO's task covers broader area in compare to NATO. Thirdly, SCO is more passionate and motivated in CT because of being established more recently and specifically for CT and also being established in the region where global CT efforts have been focused. However, SCO is not as functional as NATO in CT it because lacks important tools like Article 5 of the NATO and NATO Response Force.