European-Central Asian International Election Observation Cooperation and Contestation

Abstract

Even with the monstrosity of war in Ukraine and Russia’s repeated absence from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Permanent Council in the weeks before its attack on 24 February 2022, free and fair elections will remain fundamental to the values system of the OSCE space. Indeed, the relationship of autocracy to the use of unaccountable uses of mass violence will only reinforce the importance of democracy to peace.