When democratic governance unites and divides: Social status and contestation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners are increasingly attentive to contestation against symbols and institutions underpinning international order(s). Yet International Relations scholarship can benefit from greater understanding of ways in which contestation interacts with salient dimensions of social status in specific international organizations (IOs). Drawing on evidence from the history of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with a focus on democratic governance and human rights, this article analyzes status-related contestation as a significant, yet under-examined type of contestation in multilateral diplomacy. Status-related contestation conveys dissatisfaction about symbols, institutions, and actors which reinforce socially significant divisions that place a state (or group of states) at a social disadvantage in a particular multilateral venue. International organizations provide unique social contexts which affect the content of contestation. Building on scholarship in social psychology, constructivism, and status hierarchies in world politics, the article analyzes the evolution of a dimension (or basis) of social status in the OSCE and illustrates that, beyond domestic and material interests, state representatives communicate social identity-related concerns through language, for example, that expresses discontent with dividing lines, unfairness, or (dis)respect, in attempting to minimize negative social identities in multilateral organizations.

The AGV-based substation operation status inspection and monitoring method

“…The AGV inspection mechanism generally consists of the following parts-substation operation status data acquisition system, mechanical drive system, power supply guarantee system, and intelligent analysis system [5]. Among them, the data acquisition system mainly collects the operation equipment information around the inspection mechanism through the sensing equipment; the mechanical drive system is mainly used to detect the inspection movement route of the AGV intelligent inspection vehicle; the power supply guarantee system mainly provides the powerful guarantee for the normal work operation of the AGV intelligent inspection vehicle by connecting to the substation power supply system; the intelligent analysis system mainly adopts the computer programming language to analyze the collected substation equipment operation status data.…”

A New Eurasian Bloc? Characterizing the Activity of Former Soviet and Turkic Countries at the Un General Assembly

“…The least economically dependent member state, Kazakhstan, however, sees membership in the EEU as a balance to Russian influence in Central Asia (Dragneva & Wolczuk, 2017;Mostafa, Mahmood, 2018). Russia, in turn, usually contradicts itself by showing different interests on the same topic when its votes at UNGA are compared with votes in other international organizations, such as the OSCE (Hecht, 2021).…”