How is the OSCE actually faring?

Dear reader,

Switzerland is chairing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) this year. That this is no easy task is reflected in the organisation’s current, rather modest, objectives: securing next year’s budget and finding a successor for the chairmanship.

Put bluntly, the OSCE’s top priority is its own survival. With its 57 members, reaching a consensus has never been easy. But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the organisation has been effectively paralysed, even on technical issues such as the budget and the chairmanship. The media has repeatedly written off the OSCE as irrelevant and powerless. The argument is simple: if member states are at war with one another, the organisation has clearly failed.

At an event in Bern last week, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, the current OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, and Secretary-General Feridun Sinirlioglu went to great lengths to argue that the organisation’s very existence is a success and its continuation is essential. Alongside the UN, the OSCE is the only organisation where almost all states from the former Western and Eastern blocs sit together to discuss matters.

This view is shared in diplomatic circles. The OSCE’s role, many argue, is to be ready when it is needed. At some point, the war in Ukraine will end, and then the system of collective security in Europe will have to be stabilised once again.

Switzerland, incidentally, has close ties to the OSCE. As one historian noted at the Bern event, participation in the organisation’s predecessor was a “turning point” on Switzerland’s path towards a more independent foreign policy. Before then, Swiss foreign ministers rarely travelled abroad. International Geneva also owes part of its status to years of OSCE negotiation rounds, which brought hundreds of diplomats to the city.

Whether this year’s OSCE chairmanship will have a similar impact on Switzerland is doubtful. But if Switzerland can shape the OSCE, that in itself would be an achievement, even if it is “only” a question of the budget and the succession.

Do you have any questions on this topic? As always, you can write to me at [e-mail]

Best regards,

Giannis Mavris

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