The OSCE and transnational security threats

At its 2003 Maastricht Ministerial Council meeting, the OSCE, for the first time, adopted a major programmatic document dealing with transnational threats, the 'OSCE Strategy to Address Threats to Security and Stability in the Twenty-First Century'. While the Strategy itself represents a major step ahead into a hitherto unknown working field, it has never been strategically implemented, a weakness it shares with, among others, the ?OSCE Strategy Document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension? adopted at the same Ministerial Council meeting. The article analysis the Maastricht Strategy and looks into the question to what degree this framework document has been translated into sectoral strategies and related working structures in the areas anti-terrorism, police matters and border management, anti-trafficking in human beings, and tolerance and nondiscrimination. Finally, thematic missions are discussed as a potential key tool to address transnational threats and challenges. © 2008 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.