OSCE mediation strategies in Eastern Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh: a comparative analysis

Rescaling the legal dimensions of grey zones: Evidence from Ukraine

“…Although the main efforts of the OSCE in Ukraine before 2022 were focused on impartial monitoring and information gathering in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, its main achievement was organisation and mediation within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, including subgroups on humanitarian and security issues, which was headed by the head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, and involved representatives of the self‐declared DPR and LPR. The main quantifiable results of the dialogue, which was led by the OSCE, were the organisation of humanitarian corridors, the exchange of prisoners, and the release of civilian hostages; but the activities of the trilateral contact group and more grassroots formats were critically dependent on cooperation both with state actors (Kyiv and Moscow) and the authorities of the self‐proclaimed republics (Guliyev & Gawrich, 2021; Viceré, 2021).…”

The Reaction of International Organizations to Global Security Challenges

“…Other conflicts where the OSCE was engaged concerned mainly the post-Soviet space. First, one has to consider the Nagorno-Karabakh case, the oldest open armed conflict in the post-Soviet space, which has been going on until now (with some aggravations in 2015 and 2020) (Guliyev & Gawrich, 2021). The role of the OSCE appeared as weak and indecisive there (Shelest, 2022, p. 14).…”

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: A Changemaker on the Ground

“…The broader mediation literature is primarily focused on the role and effectiveness of mediation in conflict termination (e.g., Bercovitch and DeRouen, 2005;Clayton and Dorussen, 2022), with fewer studies concerned with conflict prevention (e.g., Eisenkopf and Bächtiger, 2013;Sheranova, 2020;Wolff, 2020). The key findings across these studies, echoed also in the literature on OSCE mediation (e.g., Guliyev and Gawrich, 2021;Hill, 2010;Lanz, 2016;Remler, 2016;2021), are that mediation is more likely to succeed when local parties are committed to a settlement and have the capacity and resources to agree and implement onefactors that can be substantially shaped by third-party support. As the following case studies indicate, these findings are broadly confirmed when it comes to the work of successive HCNMs.…”