The Kazakh Chairmanship of the OSCE and True Democracy
Images of the United Nations Security Council with Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on the table or Adlai Stevenson waiting until Hell freezes over with pictures of Soviet missiles in Cuba behind him are etched in more than one generation’s collective memory.
The Helsinki Process was launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, Western Europe countries, Canada and the United States to create a platform for discussion and cooperation different from the animosity at the U.N. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was officially created in 1975 by 35 countries as a diplomatic forum to break down barriers of mistrust. Its objective was to foster peace and prosperity from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
The Conference evolved with three pillars; the human dimension, politico-military affairs, and economics and environment. There was unequal success, but the subjects of human rights and democracy were accepted by the Soviet Union in return for guarantees of existing borders. In the least, human rights were put on the radar screen and field missions were sent to troubled areas as well as election monitoring to overview democratic processes. Treaties were signed dealing with military transparency and force reductions as well.
With the collapse of Communism came the institutionalization of the Conference. It became an organization in January 1995, an organization that now has 56 members, but still an ambiguous legal status. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) remains a platform for discussion with an unusual decision-making process based on consensus. Its informality leads to broad agreements and missions, but ones can be easily blocked by more than one country’s opposition.
All of this background is to present an important event taking place in 2010. Each year the Chairman in Office of the OSCE rotates. Up until 2009, the country in power was always from the West. In 2010, for the first time, the members of the OSCE gave the rotating Chairmanship to a former Soviet country, in this case Kazakhstan.
This was not done easily. Questions were raised about the Kazakh’s ability to run such a body, their reputation for human rights violations and their ability to be neutral on sensitive issues such as the Georgian-Russian confrontation, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Arguments against their becoming Chairman focused on fears of Russian control, while arguments for highlighted that a truly democratic organization should be led by all sides and on the continuing unfair focus on human rights violations east of Vienna. A true pan-European organization, it was argued, should be led by representatives of all its member states.
Kazakhstan has an important role to play in the international system. It is a major gas and oil producing country which stands at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. Its relations with Russia, China and the West are relatively balanced; it is particularly crucial for Western efforts in Afghanistan and the fight against terror in general. For a small country, it has economic and geopolitical stature.
The Kazakh Chairmanship will be watched very closely. It will be an indication of Russia’s willingness to cooperate with the West. Before the election of Kazakhstan, Russia had been highly obstructionist in many OSCE activities. The success of the Kazakh Chairmanship will be an indicator of the ability of Russia and former Soviet Union states to function in an international community long dominated by the West. And, Kazakhstan could play an important role in reducing tensions in the South Caucasus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria as well as broadening cooperation between Europe and Central Asia and eventually China.
Kazakhstan has always seen itself as a bridge between Europe and Asia, between West and East. In its new function, it has a wonderful opportunity to do just that.
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 | René Kuhn "Zurück zur Frau - Weg mit den Mannsweibern und Vogelscheuchen, ein Tabubruch", Luzern, 2009 |
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10.03.2010 | |
| Dieses Buch ist kein Ratgeber aus der pseudo-psychologischen Ecke, sondern eine Streitschrift, welche die Geschlechterbeziehung aus Männersicht... |
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