2022-05-30

Director addresses the OSCE Permanent Council

On 26 May 2022, the OSCE Academy Director Dr. Alexander Wolters addressed the OSCE Permanent Council within the Annual Report presentation of the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek delivered by Ambassador Alexey Rogov. Following Ambassador Rogov’s speech, Dr. Wolters presented developments that have taken place at the OSCE Academy since June 2021. Dr. Wolters provided a comprehensive overview of the MA Programmes, publishing efforts, new research projects, and exchange activities, as well as plans to expand the educational programmes in the coming years.

The gradual relaxation of the restrictions with a new order from the Ministry of Education allowed the Academy to resume the full scope of its activities, and to finally implement projects and activities that had been postponed or canceled at the time of the pandemic. Thus, in September 2021 some of the classes were moved back to traditional forms of teaching and learning while events such as trainings, and conferences or public lectures were organized in a hybrid format. Throughout the reporting period, the OSCE Academy conducted four professional trainings on topics such as Climate Change and Peace and Conflict and on Project Management. In addition, Summer and Winter Schools, several workshops and conferences, as well as publication launches were implemented in cooperation with partner institutions.

In the reporting period, 5 new issues of Central Asian Policy Briefs series, 3 reports of the Academy Papers series on conferences, 4 new Research Paper Series on the Academy’s priority research topics such as climate change, migration and Chinese BRI project, as well as within the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme AGRUMIG 2 policy briefs were published and 2 more policy briefs were prepared for publication, and third annual Yearbook in the Russian language was launched. The Academy successfully continued to position itself as a host to various visiting and full-time researchers.
Director Wolters also presented new bilateral regional and international partnerships and new cooperation agreements within the EU’s Erasmus+ programme.

In conclusion, Dr. Wolters informed the Delegations about the plans to develop a first BA programme (in Economics), and a PhD programme in Security Studies as part of the new extrabudgetary project. He also shared the plans to open a MA programme in Human Rights and Sustainability to begin in 2023 with the Academy’s partner, the Global Campus in Venice, and with prospective support from the European Union. Finally, the new plan for the creation of a MA programme in International Law and Arbitration was presented to the PC.

Photo credit: OSCE