OSCE Yearbook 2015

In a highly eventful year, the OSCE Yearbook 2015 assembles a compendium of insightful analysis and reports by leading practitioners and experts on events relating to the Organization, its 57 participating states, and the state of European security in all its dimensions.

A special focus section looks at European security 40 years after the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. It includes a contribution by Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a critical review of the original CSCE process by Reinhard Mutz, and several in-depth analyses of European security and Russian-Western relations.

A second focal point is the Ukraine crisis. Two key OSCE actors,Heidi Tagliavini and Claus Neukirch, provide first-hand accounts of the Organization’s work in the areas of mediation and monitoring. Further contributions explore the role played by the ODIHR in Ukraine, the OSCE’s overall approach to crisis management, and the link between conventional arms control and crisis management. Finally, P. Terrence Hopmann compares the current situation to the Ukraine crisis of 1992-96.

Additional topics explored in the OSCE Yearbook 2015 include non-citizens in the Baltic states; the OSCE’s field presences in Uzbekistan and Moldova; political developments in Georgia and the Western Balkans; religion and culture in Tajikistan; the withdrawal of the ISAF from Afghanistan; the Islamic State’s attempts to expand into Central Asia; the growth of right-wing populism in Europe; religious tolerance and the limits of satire; the importance of human security in the Mediterranean refugee crisis; the OSCE and the Arms Trade Treaty; the OSCE’s Border Monitoring Operation in Georgia; and the history of OSCE involvement with civil society.

The OSCE Yearbook includes extensive annexes with facts and figures on the participating States, a list of recent events, and a selected current bibliography.