ABSTRACT
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) cared to reaffirm the territorial integrity of Georgia in many official pronouncements, including the December 1996 Lisbon Summit Declaration. The position held by the OSCE vis-a-vis that doctrinal issue in the specific context of the Caucasus conflicts is crystal clear: territorial integrity prevails over the self-determination of peoples insofar as the external dimension of the latter is concerned. The activities of the OSCE in Central Asia are basically conducted through regional field offices with the standing support of Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights—and occasionally of the High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Representative on Freedom of the Media. Integrated efforts towards the democratic stabilization of the Caucasus have been undertaken by the OSCE since 1999, much more recently than in Central Asia. In Tajikistan, the OSCE did play a much more significant conflict management role than in the Caucasus.
