Die Aufgaben und Aktivitäten der Organisation für Sicherheit und Zusammenarbeit in Europa von der Konfliktverhütung und Krisenbewältigung über die Förderung von Demokratie und Menschenrechten bis zu regionaler Rüstungskontrolle – wissenschaftliche Analysen und Berichte aus der politischen und diplomatischen Praxis.

This open-access book presents cutting-edge research on securitization and democratic development in the OSCE Region. Gathering contributions by practitioners and researchers from various disciplines, it presents case studies and highlights recent activities of proactive engagement in democratic institution-building and responding to security threats from the Balkans to Central Asia. The volume is divided into three parts, the first of which focuses on security-related matters, armed conflicts, minorities, and women’s safety, as well as the roles that civil society, foreign governments, social media, and external donors play in this area. These contributions illustrate how the OSCE’s informal approach to peace, security, and securitization as norm entrepreneur is closely linked to the level of democracy among its member states. The second part presents a special section on the political implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), assessing the impact of this infrastructural program on the levels of democracy and/or autocracy in Eurasia. The third part consists of short chapters outlining future research and debates. The book will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, security studies, and the human rights-politics nexus. This is the 2022 instalment in a series of books released by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. The OSCE works to promote Minority Protection, Security, Democratic Development and Human Rights, guided by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and to enhance securitization and development policies in Eurasia, Europe, Central Asia and North America. Since being founded in 1993, the OSCE and its agencies and departments have attracted a wealth of academic research in various fields and disciplines, ranging from economic development and election monitoring to enhancing global principles of human rights and securitization.

The Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security offers a comprehensive examination of security in the region, encompassing both state-based and militarized notions of security, as well as broader security perspectives reflecting debates about changes in climate, environment, economies, and societies. Since the turn of the century, the Arctic has increasingly been in the global spotlight, resulting in the often invoked idea of “Arctic exceptionalism” being questioned. At the same time, the unconventional political power which the Arctic’s Indigenous peoples hold calls into question conventional ideas about geopolitics and security. This handbook examines security in this region, revealing contestations and complementarities between narrower, state-based and/or militarized notions of security and broader security perspectives reflecting concerns and debates about changes in climate, environment, economies, and societies. The volume is split into five thematic parts: • Theorizing Arctic Security • The Arctic Powers • Security in the Arctic through Governance • Non-Arctic States, Regional and International Organizations • People, States, and Security. This book will be of great interest to students of Arctic politics, global governance, geography, security studies, and International Relations.

This book looks into the processes of change and renewal of border control and border security and management during the past 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the immense challenges in nation-building in South-Eastern Europe after the collapse of former Yugoslavia in relation to strategic security management. The abolition of border controls within the Schengen area and simultaneous introduction of necessary replacement measures was an additional topic. The book provides an insight into which the European Union is competent in the reform and modernisation of state law enforcement agencies for ensuring effective border control, border surveillance and border management in line with the EU acquis communautaire and EU standards. In the 21st century, along with the process of globalisation, a constantly evolving security environment creates new dimensions of threats and challenges to security and stability of transnational nature. This seeks for comprehensive, multidimensional, collective and well-coordinated responses. The European Union, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, United Nations, as well as other international organisations are able to really contribute to developing cooperative and coordinated responses to these threats by relying on its broad membership and profound expertise and experience. According to the position of the European Union, a modern, cost-benefit-oriented and effective border management system should ensure both, open borders as well as maximum of security at the same time. Thus, the Union’s endeavour is to safeguarding internal security to all member states through preventing transnational threats, combating irregular migration and any forms of cross-border crime for ensuring smooth border crossings for legitimate travellers and their belongings, goods and services. That is why the Union’s concept of Integrated Border Management has been developed to ensure effective border control and surveillance and cost-efficient management of the external borders of the European Union. The Union’s policy is and will continue to be developed on the basis of the three main areas in place: common legislation, close operational/tactical cooperation and financial solidarity. In addition, Integrated Border Management has been confirmed as a priority area for strengthening the cooperation with third countries in the European Commission’s strategic security management approach, where non-EU countries are encouraged as partners to upgrade their border security, surveillance and border management systems.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest regional security organisation, possesses most of the attributes traditionally ascribed to an international organisation, but lacks a constitutive treaty and an established international legal personality. Moreover, OSCE decisions are considered mere political commitments and thus not legally binding. As such, it seems to correspond to the general zeitgeist, in which new, less formal actors and forms of international cooperation gain prominence, while traditional actors and instruments of international law are in stagnation. However, an increasing number of voices - including the OSCE participating states - have been advocating for more formal and autonomous OSCE institutional structures, for international legal personality, or even for the adoption of a constitutive treaty. The book analyses why and how these demands have emerged, critically analyses the reform proposals and provides new arguments for revisiting the OSCE legal framework.

Understanding the global security environment and delivering the necessary governance responses is a central challenge of the 21st century. On a global scale, the central regulatory tool for such responses is public international law. But what is the state, role, and relevance of public international law in today's complex and highly dynamic global security environment? Which concepts of security are anchored in international law? How is the global security environment shaping international law, and how is international law in turn influencing other normative frameworks? The Oxford Handbook of the International Law of Global Security provides a ground-breaking overview of the relationship between international law and global security. It constitutes a comprehensive and systematic mapping of the various sub-fields of international law dealing with global security challenges, and offers authoritative guidance on key trends and debates around the relationship between public international law and global security governance. This Handbook highlights the central role of public international law in an effective global security architecture and, in doing so, addresses some of the most pressing legal and policy challenges of our time. The Handbook features original contributions by leading scholars and practitioners from a wide range of professional and disciplinary backgrounds, reflecting the fluidity of the concept of global security and the diversity of scholarship in this area.

This book examines the politics of the relationships between multilateral organizations that have come to play a major role in contemporary efforts to manage international security. Drawing on concepts developed in Organizational Studies, the book starts from the assumption that inter-organizational relationships are the product of contested politics. Politics that may be either more cooperative or more competitive, but which always contains elements of both. This volume focuses on inter-organizational relations emanating from, through and towards the regional scale. The proliferation in the number of regional multilateral organizations in recent decades and their growing claims to represent effective and legitimate frameworks to address security threats and issues has been widely noted. The book is organized into four sections, covering all aspects of the inter-organizational relationships in which regional multilateral organizations are involved: global-regional, intra-regional, inter-regional, and multi-scalar. Each chapter addresses a distinct case study of inter-organizational relations (bilateral, trilateral or wider network), and examines the politics shaping these relations. This book will be of much interest to students of international security, international organizations, global governance and area studies, more generally.