OSCE Yearbook
Yearbook on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
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Each year, the Yearbook contains a wealth
of writing from experts and practitioners relating
to all
aspects of the OSCE and its work. Each volume
opens with
contributions that describe the current security
situation
in Europe, assessments of developments and
prospects within
the OSCE, and considerations of the interests and
commitments
of selected OSCE participating States.
The second section is devoted to
the OSCE’s
responsibilities, instruments, and mechanisms.
These include
conflict prevention and dispute settlement, which
are represented
by a chapter on the activities of OSCE missions
and other
field operations, detailed conflict analysis, and
regional
strategies for crisis prevention.
The chapter on the human
dimension deals
with minority issues and human rights, election
monitoring
and democratization. Additional topics touched
upon in this
chapter have included trafficking in human beings,
migration,
political Islam, and women in conflict situations.
The articles in the next chapter
consider
the task of building co-operative security. They
highlight
matters such as pan-European and regional arms
control,
confidence- and security-building measures, and
police missions
as a means of civil conflict management.
The fourth and final chapter in
the second
section is devoted to the OSCE’s economic and
environmental
dimension. The focus here is on topics such as
transformation
problems in the former socialist states, risks and
challenges
in the OSCE area, the fight against organized
crime, and
the prevention of environmental conflicts.
The third section of the
Yearbook is dedicated
to the OSCE’s procedures and structures, its
organs,
and its relationships to co-operation partners and
to other
international organizations and NGOs.
Each volume contains extensive
annexes
comprising facts and figures on the Organization
itself
and its 56 participating States, a list of recent
conferences,
meetings and events, and a selected bibliography
of current
literature.
Careful selection of authors is
the key
to the Yearbook’s success. The 25 to 35
contributions
that make up a typical OSCE Yearbook include
reports from
practitioners, prominent politicians, diplomats
and members
of the military. Some of these authors hold (or
have held)
key positions within the Organization itself; they
include
heads of missions and delegations, and employees
of institutions
such as the Conflict Prevention Centre. The
remainder of
the articles are contributed by leading
international academic
experts in disciplines ranging from Political
Science to
International Law to Economics.
The editors are particularly
concerned
to ensure a diverse internationalism among the
Yearbook’s
authors. Thus, approximately 140 of the 370 or so
authors
who wrote for the Yearbook between 1995 and 2007
came from
Germany, and some 230 from elsewhere. Most of the
latter
came from OSCE participating States – from
Azerbaijan
to Uzbekistan – but there have also been authors
from
Egypt, Korea, and Japan. Approximately 135 of the
authors
featured in the Yearbook’s history have been
academics,
while 235 have been involved in practical
activities.
The OSCE Yearbook aims to shed
light on
the work and the inner workings of the OSCE, and
to raise
awareness of the Organization among as wide a
public as
possible. It is intended as both a support for
political
decision making and a contribution to relevant
academic
discussions. Consequently, it seeks to address
politicians
and state employees at all levels of government
and in national
and international parliaments, OSCE employees
themselves,
and professors, lecturers, and students of a range
of subjects
at a variety of institutions. Finally, the
constructive
criticism and analysis contained in the Yearbook
is designed
to strengthen the OSCE itself. The highly
international
yet tightly knit network of editors and authors,
their diverse
backgrounds in political, diplomatic, military or
academic
circles, and the wide variety of topics treated
ensure that
the Yearbook carries a broad and representative
range of
opinion, facilitating free and critical discussion
of the
OSCE.
Although the Yearbook is not an
official
OSCE publication it has received considerable
moral support
from the Organization, especially from the
Secretariat in
Vienna, the Permanent Delegation of the Federal
Republic
of Germany to the OSCE, and several OSCE
institutions, including
the High Commissioner on National Minorities. It
is distributed
widely throughout the entire OSCE area, and is an
integral
part of courses of study at the OSCE Academy in
Bishkek
and elsewhere.
The Yearbook is published in co-operation with
retired Ambassador
Jonathan Dean (Union of Concerned Scientists,
Washington),
Dr. Pál Dunay (Geneva Centre for Security Policy),
Prof. Victor-Yves Ghebali (Graduate Institute of
International
Studies, Geneva), Prof. Adam Daniel Rotfeld
(Member of the
National Security Council, Warsaw), and Prof.
Andrei Zagorski
(Moscow State Institute for International
Relations). The
editorial staff are located at the IFSH in
Hamburg. Ursel
Schlichting is the editor-in-chief, and is
assisted in the
tasks of editing and translating by Susanne Bund,
Graeme
Currie, Elena Kropatcheva, Lena Kulipanova, and
Ina Shakhrai.
The editors are grateful to the
German
Foreign Office for its generous financial support.
The OSCE Yearbook can be ordered from:
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft
Vertrieb
Postfach 10 03 10
D-76484 Baden-Baden
Tel.: +49 (0) 7221 2104-0
Fax: + 49 (0) 7221 2104-27
vertrieb@nomos.de
http://www.nomos.de