The participants of the Dublin CiO Training

CORE conducted its fourth OSCE-related training course in Dublin in May 2011. The course was designed to prepare officials of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs for the forthcoming Irish OSCE Chairmanship in 2012. The previous three training courses had been conducted for groups of diplomats from Kazakhstan and Lithuania – the OSCE Chairmanships-in-Office 2010 and 2011 respectively.

The general intention of these training courses is to broaden the respective country’s MFA personnel pool qualified to deal with political and managerial issues of the OSCE. They aim at a better understanding of how an OSCE Chairmanship can utilize the Organization to build consensus among participating States on particular steps to advance pan-European security co-operation. They are meant to communicate know-how on formal and informal OSCE decision-making and procedures of decision-implementation. They focus on explaining the genesis of the Organization’s structure and matters of the OSCE’s strategic and daily management. The courses give detailed introductions to specific security issues of various OSCE sub-regions.

The participants of the Dublin CiO Training This year’s training course in May 2011 ad-dressed diplomats of the OSCE Taskforce at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Dublin, headed by Ambassador Frank Cogan, as well as representatives of the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the OSCE in Vienna. A permanent video link to Irish governmental representatives in Vienna and Brussels enlarged the geographic span of the group of trainees directly involved in the course. The training course was conducted by CORE staff along with senior staff members of the OSCE Secretariat and ODIHR. CORE is grateful to the OSCE Secretary General, Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, and to the Director of the ODIHR, Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, for providing active personnel support to help make the course successful.

“I found the course very valuable in assisting us with our preparations for the Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE in 2012”, commented Brian Glynn, Deputy Head of the Irish OSCE Task-force. “It covered a broad range of issues, and gave us a good insight into the background of many of the challenges facing the OSCE to-day.”

Kontakt: Dr. Frank Evers