ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a study that analyzed the role and significance of the OSCE in the former Soviet space, with the aim of clarifying the organization's contribution to stability and peace in the area. The OSCE has developed a complex decision-making and operational structure to support its activities in the main areas of preventive diplomacy, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. The new institutions of the High Commissioner, the Representative on Freedom of the Media and the ODIHR are examples of the innovative ways found by the OSCE to address the challenges in its area. An understanding of the OSCE's role in the former Soviet space requires, therefore, an encompassing analysis of the OSCE in its possibilities and limitations, including the environment in which it acts, and the players with which it interacts. The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the new independent republics in the former Soviet space deeply changed European affairs.