Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine has fundamental consequences for the OSCE. Participating States have fought each other before but there has never been a war of this size and destructiveness in the history of the OSCE or its predecessor, the CSCE. The decision of the Russian government to go to war, and the way it has been waging this war, violates all of the fundamental principles of international law and all OSCE norms going back to the Helsinki Decalogue.
Can the OSCE survive? Should it survive or has it lost its purpose when a major participating State no longer respects the basic rules? Should Russia be excluded from the OSCE, and is this feasible? Should OSCE activities and structures be adapted, and how?
Co-edited with Cornelius Friesendorf, this collection presents views of members of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions. The 20 papers included are very diverse, yet there is agreement among their authors that 24 February 2022 was a watershed moment in the history of the OSCE, threatening the Organization’s role as a contributor to Euro-Atlantic and Euro-Asian security.
The contributing authors also stress that Russia’s war is the culmination of a long process of organizational decline resulting from increasingly divergent interests among participating States. However, while some authors see no prospect for the OSCE in its current form, others draw lessons from history to argue that the OSCE can survive and how it can adapt.
This paper can be found as an open-access publication here and here.