America’s fifth column

Venal leaders wreck the institutional foundations of their countries’ governance systems.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the 1970s was a product of the Cold War standoff between the liberal democratic West and the communist Soviet bloc. The body’s name accurately described its role. As the Soviet empire crumbled, the OSCE turned to nurturing countries’ transition to democracy, including by helping them run free and fair elections.