Liechtenstein at the OSCE

Overview

With 57 participating States in North America, Europe and Asia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security organisation. It provides a forum for high-level political dialogue on a wide range of security issues and is a comprehensive regional instrument for early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management. The OSCE is based on a comprehensive concept of security. This consists of three dimensions of security: the politico-military dimension, the economic and environmental dimension and the human dimension. The OSCE has a broad range of instruments at its disposal for confidence- and security-building in the security and military spheres.

The three independent institutions of the OSCE serve to monitor political OSCE commitments and thus also to provide early warning. These are the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw, the High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media in Vienna. In addition, the OSCE currently maintains 12 field missions whose aim is to strengthen co-operation between the OSCE and host governments and to assist host countries in implementing OSCE commitments.

The overall political responsibility in the OSCE lies with the Chairmanship-in-Office, the foreign minister of the annually rotating chairing country. The Chairmanship is assisted in the performance of its duties by its predecessor and its successor. Together they form the so-called Troika. The Secretary General of the OSCE assists the Chairmanship-in-Office and heads the OSCE Secretariat.

The Ministerial Council, which consists of the foreign ministers of the participating States and is the most important decision-making and governing body of the OSCE, meets once a year. OSCE summit meetings may also be held at intervals of several years (most recently in Astana, Kazakhstan, in 2010).

The war in Ukraine has shaken the European security architecture to its foundations. This also affects the OSCE's fundamental principles and commitments. As OSCE decisions are taken by consensus, which is a very high hurdle in the current environment, the organisation is also facing major institutional challenges, including with regard to its budget.

Liechtenstein at the OSCE

As a non-aligned country without a military, Liechtenstein was one of the founding members of the CSCE process in 1975, which ultimately gave rise to the OSCE with its headquarters in Vienna. Liechtenstein's participation in the OSCE covers the entire spectrum of the organisation. The OSCE is the only organisation of which Liechtenstein is a member that deals with European security issues and with the conflicts on the European continent. As a European country, Liechtenstein has a direct interest in security issues in its immediate and wider neighbourhood and is affected by the consequences of conflicts. Currently, this is particularly true of the war in Ukraine.

With its comprehensive concept of security, the OSCE offers Liechtenstein the opportunity to pursue its foreign policy goals and priorities in a European alliance. This applies to multilateralism as well as to the topics of conflict prevention, the rule of law, democracy and human rights.