Schiller Institute Spokesman Harley Schlanger on Iran’s Press TV with Gilbert Doctorow

Sept. 3, 2025 (EIRNS)—Iran’s Press TV presented a 20-minute discussion on Sept. 2 on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which featured discussion by international political analyst Gilbert Doctorow, and Harley Schlanger, representing the Schiller Institute. Under the heading, “Ushering in a New World Order,” the two were asked numerous questions about what occurred in Tianjin.

Doctorow opened by describing it as an extremely important historic event, representing a change in the global strategic situation. His focus was on how the SCO, which began as a regional organization of Russia and China concerned with security—against terrorism, drug trafficking, etc.—has become an economic institution. Asked to comment on what Doctorow said, Schlanger said he agreed, but you have to go deeper. What has occurred under the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping is that security is now defined from the standpoint of economic cooperation. What emerged from the SCO was an agreement on connectivity, through great infrastructure projects.

Doctorow remained focused on the political dimension, the significance of Xi, Putin and Modi working together. Schlanger went back to the Alaska summit, and the hints that Trump and Putin spoke of broad economic cooperation. When asked about Trump’s role, Doctorow said he thinks Trump will use this against Europe, that Europe has become insignificant, and Trump is happy to see a breakup of the attempt to forge an Asian quad as an arm of NATO. Schlanger went back to discuss why Trump and the U.S. should move quickly to join the new alliance, explaining how FDR’s vision presented at Yalta was changed into a Cold War at the Potsdam conference in six months after FDR’s death. We have an opportunity today to establish a new era of peace, which is still threatened by geopolitics (Ukraine and Southwest Asia). Schlanger said that the success of the SCO conference has caused British geopolitician Halford Mackinder to spin in his grave.