ABSTRACT
This chapter describes preventive diplomacy work by intergovernmental organizations in the Western Hemisphere and in Europe, focuses in the former case on the Organization of American States (OAS), and in the latter on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OAS, headquartered in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States, was historically a tool of that country and continues to be under its shadow. From 1994, the year in which it evolved into an international organization from its predecessor, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE dedicated itself to being “a primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management in the region.” The OSCE high commissioner on national minorities, a position established a quarter of a century ago, is one of its leading actors for the prevention of conflicts and violence. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is a leading institution of contemporary preventive diplomacy.
