CSS Evening Talk: The Swiss OSCE Chairmanship

On 11 December, the CSS held an Evening Talk on the topic of “The Swiss OSCE Chairmanship 2014.” The speakers were Ambassador Heidi Grau, head of the OSCE Task Force at the Swiss Foreign Ministry, and Christian Nünlist, head of the Swiss and Euro-Atlantic Security Team at the CSS think tank

The attendees all agreed that the OSCE has unfairly drifted outside of the focus of public attention. For the OSCE is the only organization of significance in the area of security policy that includes all European states including the successor states of the Soviet Union as well as the US and Canada.

However, expectations of the Swiss chairmanship should not be unrealistically high. Berne, it was agreed, was determined to foster the OSCE reform process, to increase mediation capacities, to achieve progress in the area of transnational threats (fighting international terrorism), and to advance the cause of reconciliation in the Western Balkans. However, no great success was expected when it came to conventional arms control or dealing with conflicts in the Caucasus, where the antagonism between the interests of Western states and those of Russia is in full effect.