except in circumstances where the latter’s own Council would already be
prepared to deploy force. In December 1994 the summit conference adopted
the new name of OSCE in order to reflect the organization’s changing political
role and strengthened secretariat. The OSCE has been quite successful in
providing a negotiating forum for all European countries while they are
steadily absorbed into the longer-existing economic and military structures,
and is particularly relied on by the Baltic states. However the possibility of a
greatly enlarged EU and a similarly enlarged NATO seem likely to make the
organization redundant.
Organization of African Unity (OAU)
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was founded in 1963 to promote
organized and coherent policies among the non-aligned African nations (see
neutralism), and to help eradicate the remaining colonial traces in Africa. As a
result its principal concerns have been with South Africa, and with Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) between the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)
in 1965 and independence in 1980. In neither of these areas, nor in dealing
with conflicts between African states or inside them, has the OAU been
particularly effective, although its record improved somewhat in the 1990s and
early 2000s. The OAU was, for example, severely split over both the Angolan
civil war and the secessionist Biafran civil war in Nigeria. The reliance of many
African states on external powers, for example Angola and Ethiopia on the
Soviet Union, and some previous French colonies on France, has been a major
factor in restricting the effectiveness of the OAU. The termination of Soviet
influence in the continent, together with the achievement of majority rule in
South Africa, allowed the OAU a fresh start. For example, in 1991 a treaty on
the creation of an African Economic Community was signed, and efforts to
transform the Organization into an African Union, following the model of the
European Unionwere renewed (the African Union was constituted in July
2001 and was expected to enter into effect one year later). Despite its increased
political importance and improved performance as a regional arbiter, it
remained ineffectual in some important respects—for example, when electoral
fraud in Zimbabwe became a serious issue in 2002, it was the Commonwealth,
not the OAU, which took the lead.
Organization of American States (OAS)
The Organization of American States is a regional association founded in 1948,
but building on earlier pan-American associations dating from the 19th
century, to foster peace, security and mutual understanding and co-operation
among the nations of the western hemisphere. The overwhelming economic,
Organization of American States (OAS)