INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS OF MULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ORGANIZATION OF TURKIC STATES, THE EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION, THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION, AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

Abstract

This article offers a comparative institutional analysis of four multilateral organizations active in the post-Soviet and Turkic-speaking space: The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While these bodies share a common geopolitical arena and, in several cases, overlapping membership, they differ markedly in institutional depth, degree of supranational delegation, and the diplomatic functions their mechanisms perform. Drawing on the comparative regionalism literature and on integration theories — federalism, functionalism, neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, and constructivism — the article develops a structured comparison of summit architecture, permanent bodies, and dispute-settlement or coordination capacity. It argues that the OTS occupies an intermediate institutional position: more developed than the loosely coordinating CIS, yet more consultative and identity-driven than the economically supranational EAEU or the security-focused SCO. The findings contribute to the broader literature on comparative regionalism in Eurasia and to an understanding of how multilateral diplomacy is institutionally channeled among states that belong simultaneously to several overlapping regional frameworks