The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan poses local, regional and global stability challenges for the OSCE and its participating States.
Confidence Building in the OSCE Region
China: A Challenge or an Opportunity for the OSCE?
China has become a significant actor in the OSCE area at a time of deep divisions among participating States.
The prospects for a settlement on Transnistria under a Sandu presidency
Within days of Maia Sandu’s victory, the protracted conflict over Transnistria has moved to the centre stage again.
Ukraine a pawn in high-stakes global game with no quick win in sight for EU, US or Russia
Given the depth of these problems, Ukraine’s crisis is certain to continue. Any effort to resolve it in a sustainable way will require a more comprehensive agreement and the breathing space to negotiate it–neither of which will be possible without highly responsible and strategic leadership in Kiev, Moscow, Brussels and Washington.
The Transnistrian Issue: Moving Beyond the Status-Quo
The EU has a clear opportunity to contribute to the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and prove itself an effective conflict manager and actor for stability and security in its own neighbourhood. This is a task that is not without challenges, but these challenges are of such a nature that the EU can, and must, confront them.
Twenty Years On: The Continuing Relevance of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Given the persistence of minority-majority tensions and conflict across the OSCE area and beyond, the institution of the High Commissioner on National Minorities remains as relevant today as twenty years ago, and I see three specific areas in which the HCNM has a future role to play: monitoring, preventive quiet diplomacy, and policy transfer.
The European Union’s South Ossetia Dilemma
The dilemma for the EU is that it has put itself in a position in which it cannot side with the people of South Ossetia who, in their majority, have endorsed a female candidate in a presidential election deemed free and fair.
Two decades of ‘frozen’ conflicts in the post-Soviet space
At the end of 2011, it will be twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union but so-called “frozen conflicts” in Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan stubbornly persist. Why, despite significant international efforts, has no settlement been achieved for these conflicts over the past two decades?
An Anniversary Worth Commemorating
The 1991 Polish-German Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations and Friendly Cooperation has been a remarkable success in resetting German-Polish relations and bringing them to an unprecedented level of constructive and mutually beneficial engagement across all levels of government, business and society.