Working without Sanctions: Factors Contributing to the (Relative) Effectiveness of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Publisher: ECMI Volume: 38 pages, pdf Description: The terms “early warning” and “early action” point to the key task of the High Commissioner, which is preventive diplomacy. The literature distinguishes between structurally-oriented general prevention and process-oriented special prevention (cf. Neukirch, 2003: 40-88). Structural prevention is of a long-term nature and deals with changes of the basic features of a society, particularly the introduction of increased social justice, the rule of law and democracy. The basic assumption is that these elements will have a civilizing impact on the conflict behavior of social groups and societies. One prominent example for such a strategy is the “civilizational hexagon” of the German peace researcher Dieter Senghaas, which comprises six elements: (1) the de-privatization of power by securing the monopoly of State power.