ABSTRACT
This book has shown the origin, stasis, expansion, and regional engagement of the CSCE/OSCE. Since 1975, the conference/organization has played an important part, at times great and at times small, in the European security architecture. The OSCE has not developed into a new all-inclusive NATO as was the hope of the Russian Federation in the 1990s.1 Nor has it always been the most effective regional organization in preventing conflict, building peace or keeping the peace. Although it has the mandate to employ a peace-keeping force, it has never done so and most likely never will, given the EU’s entrance into the peace-keeping business, beginning with FYR Macedonia in March 2003. Member-states of other European organizations do not give the OSCE the same attention as they do NATO, the EU, or the Council of Europe. While this book in general, and this chapter specifically, has offered an argument for the continued relevance of the OSCE in the European security architecture, others have used words such as “crossroads,” “decline” or “crisis” to describe the OSCE since the late 1990s.
