New Europe

07.03.2010

Author: Professor Irnerio Seminatore

Prospects for European cooperation on global collective security.

Early during the presidency of the OSCE the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev,  published an article that provides a  commentary on the state of the world and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe from international perspective. The development of the OSCE as well as its cohesion and influence depend for most of the year  on the policy and institutional diplomacy of Kazakhstan and has the ability to spawn innovation in an organization that has existed since 1973.  The OSCE has since grown from 33 states on the 56 today.

The objectives of the Presidency come at a crucial moment of change in the international system as it evolves towards greater pluralism and toward a broader area of security in Eurasia. Kazakhstan is the first state in the former USSR to hold the presidency of the organization and is implicated in  the same security concerns as those of the Euro-Atlantic relationship and the from the northern Eurasian hemisphere all the way to the Far East.  The most important role that the OSCE can play a major role in attenuating the international tensions  which continue to be key to Kazakhstan‘s   agenda as president of the OSCE.

These concerns form a threefold intellectual break away from XXI century geopolitics: one in terms of preventing nuclear threats,  a second in demonstrating a successful dialogue between East and West (in terms of the nature of the OSCE as an organization founded on a bipolar ideology and world-view).

In his analysis the President of Kazakhstan passes quickly from a review of the realities of current geopolitics and elaborates a visible a rift between multilateral and transnational relations in terms of the architecture of economics, finance and security- and in particular, the dynamics of regional and global security. The President makes a valuable point of the necessity to contruct security policies throughout Europe and Asia, and to maintain their inclusive dimension. We cannot ignore Kazakhstan effort to find  a resolution to the Afghan conflict, to introduce peace building measures and introduce aid and development to the country. In the paper President Nazarbayev presents the projects and the ambitions of the Kazakhstan Presidency with regards to the  key role the country can play with regards to its political and physical rapprochement to Western Europe and Western China, resulting from the introduction of a project for a transport corridor  as well as the general improvement of conditions that create constructive dialogue between the 56 member countries of the OSCE.

In this effort to give a new impetus to Euro-Asian relations, the President also stresses the importance the environment in the region. In terms of reform, modernization and democratization policies in Kazakhstan, he cites the creation of measures under the 2009-2012 Action Plan and emphasizes the importance of Kazakhstan’s contribution to the continued coordination programme that the Presidency has set for itself in the OSCE. The words of the President reflect the desires and expectations of OSCE member countries as well as members of the  EU.