Facilitating multi-actor cooperation to meet new peace and security challenges

Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) are increasingly expected to play an important role in ensuring peace and stability in their respective regions. Violent conflicts and other transnational security challenges are major threats to democracy, stability and prosperity. Accordingly, multilateral and multidimensional approaches and strategies to address these issues are of utmost importance. Since the 1990s a promising array of international, regional, and non-governmental mechanisms to enhance security and prevent armed conflict has been established or expanded. The African Union (AU), for instance, established a set of mechanism for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in what has been called the African Peace and Security Architecture. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has developed a number of innovative internal mechanisms and practices toward preventing conflict in Europe. The Organization of American States (OAS) has placed new efforts on strengthening partnerships with other regional and international institutions and has expanded the scope of its mandate to address new threats such as terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, illicit arms trafficking and others, while at the same time putting a greater emphasis on the human dimension of security.