YEREVAN, Armenia — Following the Group of 20 meetings in Seoul and the NATO summit in Portugal, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will hold its first summit in 10 years in Astana, Kazakhstan's spanking new capital city.
This is only the fourth post-Cold War summit convened by the OSCE. The first was held in 1994 in Budapest, the year the group transformed itself into a new, post-detente organization. Two more summits were in Lisbon in 1996 and in Istanbul in 1999.
Not coincidentally, the 10-year gap between summits overlaps Russia's re-emergence as a global player, following the trauma of the Soviet Union's collapse. As a result of Russia's revival, a range of disagreements has arisen within the OSCE — the only pan-European and trans-Atlantic organization that includes old Europe and the post-Soviet states.