The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the post-cold war era: An analysis of its comprehensive approach to security

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Thesis Type: Doctorate

Institution Of The Thesis: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, Turkey

Approval Date: 2015

Student: HAKAN KARAASLAN

Supervisor: HÜSEYİN BAĞCI

Abstract:

The main objective of the dissertation is to analyze the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) ‘comprehensive approach to security’ in its region in the new security environment of the post-Cold War era. This dissertation presents an in-depth analysis of the OSCE’s practices over three dimensions of security, namely politico-military, economic-environmental and human dimensions, within the conceptual framework of ‘comprehensive security’. Despite the ongoing debates on the relevancy of the OSCE as a security organization and the participating States’ growing divergent views on security and role and institutional development of the Organization, this dissertation argues that the OSCE has kept its relevancy in the post-Cold War era by focusing on non-military aspects of security or non-traditional security issues. In the post-Cold War era, the OSCE has shifted its focus of attention in line with the growing significance of the non-military security issues. However, the OSCE’s focus on non-military security issues in the post-Cold War era has not resulted in a balanced way in terms of the Organization’s impact and visibility over its three dimensions of security. While the OSCE has registered some success in the fields of conflict prevention, Policing, human rights and democratization, the Organization’s impact and visibility in the economic-environmental dimension have remained limited and secondary in comparison to the non-military security issues in the field of human dimension and in the non-military aspects of politico-military dimension.