Existing negotiation formats for post-Soviet protracted conflicts have failed to reach their ultimate objective of reaching sustainable settlements. However, as I argue in this report for the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, they have been important in stabilising volatile situations, providing humanitarian relief, and addressing issues short of political settlement questions (such as economic connectivity, freedom of movement issues, and environmental management). These smaller, but nonetheless important successes have, in significant part, been due to OSCE efforts, especially those focused on mediation and confidence building.
This paper can be found as an open-access publication here and here.