IRELAND IS preparing to take the helm at the world’s largest regional security organisation amid growing tension between its most powerful members, the United States and Russia.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) comprises 56 nations, stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, and tackles everything from peacekeeping to election monitoring, and from arms control to protection of free media and the environment.
The OSCE’s annual summit of foreign ministers ended in disappointment last week, however, and the task facing Ireland was encapsulated by Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt as he departed Lithuania’s capital with a dejected tweet: “Leaving Vilnius. Unfortunately all progress on human rights and democracy issues was blocked. But EU and US stood firm together.”
The meeting boosted the OSCE’s role in north Africa and Afghanistan and enhanced its crisis-response capability, but progress on other key issues was stymied by stubborn disputes, in an atmosphere soured by a row between Washington and Moscow.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton used her address to the summit to call for an investigation into Russian general elections that she deemed “neither free nor fair”.
Her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, accused her of disrespecting the OSCE, and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin later claimed her speech had served as a “signal” for thousands of Russians to launch protests against his government.
"The OSCE reflects the state of affairs within its community," the organisation's secretary general, Lamberto Zannier, told The Irish Times. "If relations are complicated then the OSCE lets you see that, and decision-making becomes more difficult. And we are going through a relatively complex phase now."
Ireland succeeds Lithuania as chair of the OSCE and plans to use 2012 to encourage the protection of free media, as the internet’s role in the Arab Spring prompts autocratic leaders to restrict its availability. Irish officials also hope to use experience gained from the North’s peace process to tackle 20-year “protracted” conflicts in breakaway regions of Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan, and to enhance international efforts to combat organised crime and corruption.
Many of next year’s responsibilities will fall to Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore, and Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton.
“This puts Ireland in a leadership position in a major international organisation, and critically it comes just before we take over the EU presidency. These next two years will be very important to us,” Gilmore said in Vilnius.
Creighton, who also attended the OSCE summit, said “the timing couldn’t be better”.
“We are very conscious of the damage our country’s reputation has suffered in recent years, and this gives us a great opportunity to take our place on the world stage and bring our skills and traditional foreign-policy values to the fore.”
Creighton also said Ireland would try to make the OSCE “work at the highest level of efficiency”, and Ireland’s OSCE staff would be the smallest of any chairmanship.
The demands of the office are considerable, however. Ireland plans to host major international conferences on media freedom and conflict resolution, and senior officials might have to scramble to deal with a crisis in the Caucasus or central Asia.
Lithuanian foreign minister Audronius Azubalis said that during the first half of this year he spent about 40 per cent of his time on OSCE affairs, travelling some 85,000km (52,800 miles).
Ireland’s work will be made much more complicated if US-Russian relations deteriorate further, particularly as one of Dublin’s first tasks will be to persuade an angry Moscow to allow OSCE monitors to oversee next March’s presidential election.
Moreover, Russia has great influence in the conflict zones where the OSCE operates and in Belarus, where the organisation is trying to foster democracy.
Though it was created to overcome the divisions of the cold war, the OSCE often splits between a US-led western group and Russia and its ex-Soviet allies.
The interests of member states are often contradictory, and all OSCE decisions are taken by consensus. This regularly leads to the kind of stalemate seen in Vilnius, where Moscow’s bloc vetoed proposals on arms controls and western nations opposed Russian efforts to change how the OSCE handles free speech and democracy issues.
Zannier praised Ireland’s “very positive, pragmatic approach” to the challenges ahead, saying “it comes with very good credentials for a difficult job”.
Ian Kelly, the US ambassador to the OSCE headquarters in Vienna, was also upbeat about Ireland’s year in the hot seat.
“It can be a real honest broker and look for common ground between East and West, promoting trust and transparency,” he said. “We are thrilled that Ireland is going to take the organisation forward. We share the same set of values.”