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The role of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is analyzed in the framework of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the peace mission established in Kosovo in 1999. The OSCE Mission in Kosovo (OMIK) was asked to (re)establish institutions, including in the security sector through the creation of a new police force, the Kosovo Police Service. Although it tried to set up a democratic, multiethnic police force as part of the process of reconciliation, OMIK was a weak institution. Its actions were blurred, even impeded by UNMIK, which was concerned more with short-term pacification than with sustainable reconciliation. This article draws from interviews, OSCE archives, official documents, observations, and field work carried out both in Kosovo and at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna.