Book review of Cristian Nünlist and David Svarin (eds.) Overcoming the East-West Divide: Perspectives on the Role of the OSCE in the Ukraine Crisis

In 2014 Europe’s security configuration had to deal with a severe crisis. Events in Ukraine led to a situation of civil war in Ukraine and a further development of the East-West Divide between (Western) Europe and Russia. During 2014 most attention was given to international actors like the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (nato), the European Union (eu), the United Nations (un) and state actors like the United States (us) and the Russian Federation, whose actions were either ineffective in resolving the conflict or further antagonised the situation. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce), however, fulfilled an important role in the background and tried, with some success, to offer a forum for mediation and impartial fact gathering.