The multilateral security organizations at stake. NATO, OSCE and the Covid-19 emergency: an opportunity into the crisis?

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Published: Jun 30, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/hapscpbs.24965
Gian Lorenzo Zichi
University of Cagliari
Abstract
The Coronavirus outbreak showed how nobody was prepared to this crisis and to its economic, social and political implications which now represent the main challenge for political actors. However, if the measures taken by national states to curb the sanitary emergency seem to have partially restored their capacity to address the events, the Covid-19 has struck a significant blow to the already fragile multilateral system, as exemplified by the allegations – some of them based on coherent elements of criticism, other with less objective basis and misleading – to the World Health Organization (WHO). To better investigate the impact of this unprecedented crisis on the international institutions and its implications on security, the present article aims first to shed light on how two important organizations as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), have reacted and are acting to this crisis: an aspect  just partially covered by the public media and that deserves to be better explored to avoid misleading interpretations. Secondly, trying to offer to the national stakeholders and public opinions a useful way to look on the Covid-19’s impact on these forums, the analysis will also reflect on the possibility that this crisis could be turn by the organizations into an opportunity to relaunch themselves and become more aware of the other elements of concern as health risks, climate change and migration which, even not strictly related with the conventional interpretation of security, are posing undeniable aspects of concern. In front of the contradiction between the emerging of complex global challenges and the deteriorating of the multilateral order, this crisis should foster organizations and states to find a new reason to cooperate in answering to the future global threats, recognizing that a better security is possible only through a comprehensive approach.
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Author Biography
Gian Lorenzo Zichi, University of Cagliari
Gian Lorenzo Zichi is PhD (Doctor Europaeus) in History, Cultural Heritage and International Studies at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and currently post-doc researcher at the Department of Social and Political Sciences University of Cagliari (Italy). He earned researcher grants from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome, Italy) and from the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC, New York, United States).
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