The Future of OSCE Field Operations (Options)

The OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions is an autonomous OSCE-related track II initiative. It is neither an OSCE structure nor subordinated to the OSCE or its participating States. The network’s members are research institutions from across the OSCE area that are engaged in academic research and policy analysis on issues relevant to the OSCE’s security agenda.

The purpose of this report is to help stimulate discussions on the value and future of the field operations of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE/‘the Organization’). This is at a time when field operations are confronted with a new dimension of challenges, such as that which is developing at present in Ukraine, while some participating States are attempting to limit the activities of the field operations they are hosting, or to close them with the argument that they had already fulfilled their mandates. This report is not intended to provide a mainstream analysis of OSCE field operations, and put forth recommendations that would have been accepted by everybody anyhow. Rather, its aim is to present proposals that do not (yet) enjoy consensus, in order to inform and stimulate a necessary debate.

This report is the joint product of a group of twenty-one members of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions.