China, Russland und eine Reihe ehemaliger Satellitenstaaten haben sich im Juni 2001, also noch vor dem 11.9., zu einer Anti-Terrorkoalition zusammengeschlossen, der Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Wie Jing-dong Yuan in der Moscow Times berichtet, hat diese nun ihre ersten "Übungen" durchgeführt. Die Ziele gehen aber wohl weit über den Anti-Terrorkampf hinaus:

Indeed, while the immediate focus of the organization is to fight terrorism, the larger issue for the longer term is whether the organization can evolve into a sub-regional arrangement that would contribute to peace, stability and prosperity. Beijing has great interest in seeing it succeed as a counter model to U.S.-led military alliances. Indeed, some analysts have suggested that China may seek to use the organization as a counterweight to U.S. dominance in international politics.