OSCE Yearbook 2004

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) plays an indispensable role in creating and maintaining peace, security, and stability in Europe. The Yearbook’s key focus this year is on the Caucasus, the setting for so many bloody wars and conflicts: Russia’s war in Chechnya, the wars of secession in Georgia, and the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. In nine original contributions, international experts analyse the causes of these conflicts and their historical and political contexts, describe recent developments, examine the role of religion, and discuss transregional economic and political issues.
The OSCE Yearbook 2004 again devotes considerable attention to the OSCE’s long-term missions. Further topics tackled in the tenth volume of this series include anti-Semitism (and the high-profile OSCE anti-Semitism conference held in Berlin in April 2004), urgent contemporary problems such as money laundering and organized crime, the OSCE’s co-operation with Transparency International in the fight against corruption, and the possibility of applying the model of the CSCE to the conflicts of the Middle East.
In the OSCE Yearbook 2004, over 40 leading experts – both practitioners and academics – once more present a profound range of detailed information and a broad and representative spectrum of opinion.
The Yearbook includes extensive annexes with facts and figures on the Organization’s 55 participating States, a chronology, and a selected current bibliography of OSCE-related literature.