The 21st OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Basel – Reaffirming the OSCE’s role as the main forum for dialogue between East and West – Stephanie Liechtenstein
Title: The 21st OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Basel – Reaffirming the OSCE’s role as the main forum for dialogue between East and West
Author: Stephanie Liechtenstein
Abstract
This article analyses the outcome of the 21st OSCE Ministerial Council (MC) meeting, held in Basel, Switzerland, on 4 and 5 December 2014. The larger political context is taken into account, especially the crisis in and around Ukraine and the renewed confrontation between the West and Russia. The article provides an extensive analysis of all adopted decisions in the three security dimensions as well as of a number of draft documents that failed to reach consensus. The main documents that are analyzed include declarations on the Helsinki+40 process and on protracted conflicts, and decisions on countering kidnapping for ransom and terrorist foreign fighters, preventing corruption, improving disaster risk reduction, and on combating violence against women. The article concludes that the Swiss OSCE Chairmanship helped to reaffirm the OSCE’s role as the main forum for political dialogue between East and West.
Keywords
Basel OSCE Ministerial Council – Swiss OSCE Chairmanship – Helsinki+40 process – East-West relations – protracted conflicts – OSCE response to the crisis in Ukraine – countering kidnapping for ransom – countering terrorist foreign fighters – arms control issues – disaster risk reduction – the prevention of torture – countering violence against women – OSCE Youth Action Plan
Metadata
Title: The 21st OSCE Ministerial Council Meeting in Basel – Reaffirming the OSCE’s role as the main forum for dialogue between East and West
Author: Stephanie Liechtenstein
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18750230-02504009
Language: English
Year: 2014
Volume: 25
Issue: 4
Pages: 406–439
In: Security and Human Rights
E-ISSN: 1875-0230