Paris '07 Workshop |
THE EU, NATO, OSCE, AND UN – HOW CAN THESE VITAL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS WORK TOGETHER?
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Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut
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| Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (right), OSCE Secretary General, with Georgia's Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili. |
"When there is a lasting
crisis, a frozen conflict, a prolonged cease-fire, the need for peace building
or a political solution, ...how can the [international]
organizations work together?...
Who does
the political mediation? Who handles the
peacekeeping on the
ground?
Who
provides the special representatives...?"
This panel has been charged with an important challenge: to think about how the U.N., the OSCE, NATO, and the EU can work together, how they can address the needs of the states that are the central actors of the international community, and how much those states trust those organizations to address crises, both highly intense and prolonged, and to build peace. The responses from the states on these points have varied and reflect the organizations’ different formats, capacities, charters, and tools.
This very distinguished panel, which consists of six speakers with very diverse diplomatic, military, and geographic backgrounds, is going to give us their answers to three key questions about our topic that I will briefly outline here:
1. How should the various organizations act, and how can they work together, when a crisis arises? The organizations I just mentioned need to work together effectively when they address an open crisis. Obviously the U.N. has a central role, as does the OSCE as a regional organization of the United Nations according to Chapter 8 of the U.N. Charter. NATO is also involved, sometimes outside of the U.N. framework, and states are also involved outside of the U.N. framework. How can they work together?
2. When there is a lasting crisis, a frozen conflict, a prolonged cease-fire, the need for peace building or a political solution, or another similar situation, how can the organizations work together? What share of the burden does each take? Who does the political mediation? Who handles the peacekeeping on the ground? Who provides the special representatives as well as the heads of the peacekeeping operations?
3. How can we create frameworks for good governance? You are all familiar with the fact that more and more peace building is crucial, that building the capacities of crisis areas to create trust, links, and frameworks for good governance is absolutely critical. But the four organizations each have a different game plan. The EU has deep pockets and diversified resources so it is involved in a big way, but the U.N. also traditionally plays a very important role.