In a new publication, Dr Monika Wohlfeld and Ambassador Fred Tanner (ret.) discuss how the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) addresses new security challenges and suggest ways of improving that response.
The monograph on "Comprehensive Security and New Challenges: Strengthening the OSCE" is part of the publication series IAI Papers of the Rome-based Istituto Affaro Internzionali. It was prepared in the context of the New-Med Research Network, a research network of Mediterranean experts and policy analysts with a special interest in the complex social, political, cultural and security-related dynamics that are unfolding in the Mediterranean region.
The Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe’s comprehensive security approach, developed in the 1970's, continues to guide its work on new transnational and multidimensional challenges. Relations with other international organisations and with neighbouring regions are essential to understand how the OSCE has faced these new challenges.
Different case studies illustrate OSCE efforts, notably challenges emanating from the abuses of digital technology; the fight against hate crime on social media; the nexus between climate change, development and security; and the need to address migration and human trafficking as well as the global effects of the covid-19 pandemic. While the emergence of new security challenges in an increasingly unstable international environment presents new risks to the OSCE, finding a way forward may help overcome the persistent political divisions among the OSCE’s participating States.
Dr Monika Wohlfeld is the Holder of the German Chair for Peace Studies and Conflict Prevention at MEDAC.
Amb. Tanner, a former Director of MEDAC, is currently a Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, the Graduate Institute and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).
Both have extensive work experience in the context of the OSCE.