Afghanistan and Central Asia

Gee, I hate when I’m wrong.  I was rooting for Kazakhstan and OSCE chairmanship, but I didn’t think they’d get the chance after Rakhat-gate blew into the stratosphere.  But they have it, which, as I said, and against most of the reactions, I think is a good thing. 

As noted in a great backgrounder by Daniel Kimmage at RFERL, OSCE directors postponed a vote last year until two days ago.  Delay only allowed Mr. Nazarbaev & Co. to focus their efforts on the bid.  And the effort paid off.  The decision is made–but the controversy is not over.  And there’s good reason for it.

What does the OSCE do?
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a member organization comprised of 56 states in Europe, Asia, and North America.  It generally seeks to develop relationships relating to security issues and trade, and has centres or representatives in each of the Central Asian capitals.  Security issues include some conflict prevention and reconstruction in frozen conflict areas across the Caucasus (e.g., the Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh) and several missions in the Former Yugoslavia.  They are perhaps best known for election monitoring in Central Asia.  Issues such as terrorism, human trafficking are addressed under both trade and security–what the OSCE calls “complex security challenges”.   Trade cooperation includes items such as “open skies agreements” which coordinates standards for air traffic and airport safety standards.  It’s one of the most valuable international forums.

The OSCE has periodic summits and inbetween these summits, yearly Ministerial meetings.  Other committees meet weekly–in short, a busy set of places for diplomacy, headquartered in various European capitals (The Hague, Helsinki, etc). 

What’s the problem with Kazakhstan as OSCE chair?
Three things, falling loosely into two major categories of democratization and transparency.  

One, unfree and unfair elections.  The OSCE is determined to advance clean elections across former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries. 
Two, the many deaths of muckraking journalists and opposition candidates.
Three, a state-owned press–or if not exactly state-owned, state-controlled.

What’s right about Kazakhstan as OSCE chair?
One, a lot of energy supply: that’s oil, gas, uranium, and diplomatic energy.  Europe needs to make nice with Kazakhstan as the best alternative to the Russian Federation for the extractable assets.  At the same time, Kazakhstan understands Russia in a different way than Western Europe does–and has a nice close relationship.  OSCE chairmanship increases Kazakhstan’s multilateral ties to European states and helps them in intervention–or before intervention is needed, adding a little juice to their ability to talk to Russia.  Very strategic.
Two, the EU has been blocking emerging states from associations that they want, for not being pristine enough.  Sometimes the pedestal upon which the EU has erected its house just seems to high for cooperation.  Electing Kazakhstan to OSCE leadership helps the EU look more accessible and may stimulate more dialogue.
Three, the different leadership provides a voice for those states whose concerns are a little different than those of Western Europe–security, drug traffic, and insurrection, for instance–and perhaps a different complexion on trade arrangements.  It may just get resolution of frozen conflicts into a new place across the Caucasus–and wouldn’t that be nice? 

So,  the OSCE member states can make this a win-win for everyone–sticking up for transparency and elections as always and making this a reputational issue for the new chair.  At the same time, they could stop talking for a minute and listen to some of the things that Kazakhstan may have to say, and increase their range of knowledge.  I’m for it–not that things can’t go wrong, because they can.  But I’m for it because a whole bunch of things can also go very right.

Further Reading:
OSCE Fact Sheets (all 12) on a portal page
Steve LeVine says bad idea for the OSCE
Human Rights Watch says Kazakhstan’s chairmanship is undeserved
U.S. does not oppose, back in October
Murdered journalists in Central Asia at Registan.net

Photos: I can has cheezburger.com for the cat: Rebecca Hitherby (hitherby.com) for the great drawing which makes me think of the journalists who have been killed in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states; and bugleband.com for the samovar, uh, trophy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Kazakhstan, Collective Security Organizations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.