The OSCE in Crisis: Five Lessons from the League of Nations

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, questions about the survival of the OSCE have taken an acute form. However, the war in Ukraine is not the only crisis facing the OSCE. The Organization has long been challenged by institutional deadlock, boycotts, budget cuts, increasing great power conflict, and growing contestation from nationalist and populist leaders. The question is therefore: How can the OSCE respond to such challenges to increase its resilience? In this paper I analyze various historical crises faced by the League of Nations and consider the extent to which institutional “coping strategies” during this era offer lessons for the present. Although the League was ultimately dissolved, many of its individual agencies live on in the United Nations. The paper provides recommendations for how to apply lessons from the League with a view to strengthening the OSCE’s resilience.