The C.D.E. Parallel Track: Success of the Stockholm Conference

Abstract

While the M.B.F.R. talks floundered, the negotiations of the thirtyfive-country Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, or C.S.C.E., prospered. The C.S.C.E. negotiations also began in 1973, as part of an East/West package deal to start M.B.F.R. They culminated in August, 1975, in the Helsinki Final Act, a generally worded document that endorsed the postwar boundaries of Europe as subject to change only by peaceful means and called on participants voluntarily to notify major military exercises in advance. The participants at Helsinki and in ensuing C.S.C.E. activities include the sixteen members of the NATO alliance, the seven members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, and twelve European neutral and non-aligned states.¹