Building a pan-Eurasian security community?

As the post-cold war moment of US unilateralism is slowly passing away, the new age of multilateralism is firmly grounded in improved bilateral relations. At present, the clearest example of this trend is the "reset" of US-Russia relations. By contrast with a dangerous escalation of tensions between East and West during the Georgian conflict in August 2008, President Obama is genuinely committed to ending the new "Cold War of minds" and inaugurating an era of careful cooperation and perhaps even a wide-ranging partnership with Moscow. The START treaty signed last month in Prague is a small yet significant element in consolidating the "reset" and strengthening ties with the Kremlin under President Medvedev. US-Russian engagement is also key to successful negotiations on further nuclear arms reduction, non-proliferation and a deal with Tehran on its nuclear ambitions.

Today's Russia is just as unsure about its global role as the post-Lisbon EU and Obama-led USA. Like the rest of the ‘other Europe’, Moscow is disillusioned with Brussels and focuses instead on strengthening bilateral ties with big countries such as Germany, France and Italy. It is also forging deeper links with Turkey and the Ukraine in the hope of extending its ‘sphere of privileged interests’ and providing a counterweight to what the Kremlin views as the idea of a narrow Europe dominated by its western part and ruled by the EU. NATO expansion is still the single most poisonous element of Russia’s relations with the US and Europe, even if security cooperation in a number of areas has been more effective in recent months.

Adrian Pabst argues that it is not clear what strategic importance the Kremlin ascribes to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – not least because Russia is vying with China over geo-political hegemony in central Asia. This, coupled with the recognition that other groupings like BRIC won’t mutate into military alliances, explains why from the outset of his mandate President Medvedev has been pushing for a new pan-Eurasian security framework from Vancouver to Vladivostok...
http://www.eastwest-review.com/article/building-pan-eurasian-security-community