OSCE

The OSCE and Central Asia: Options for engagement

Three trends, accelerated by the Russian war in Ukraine, characterise the changing geopolitical dynamics in Central Asia: Russia’s declining influence in the region, China’s reluctance to step decisively into this void, and the slowly but unevenly increasing ability of the Central Asian countries to provide an alternative framework for managing regional stability.

Twenty Years On and Twenty Years Ahead

While resistance to HCNM involvement is likely to increase in an era in which sovereignty concerns all too often trump concerns over human and minority rights, this does not make the institution of the HCNM itself irrelevant — on the contrary. I argue in this article that there are three areas in which the HCNM has a future role to play: monitoring, preventive quiet diplomacy, and policy transfer.

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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.

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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.

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