ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the way the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) works, its advantages and disadvantages, and obstacles. It presents a few ideas about the military security aspects and arms control aspects of this CSCE process, with special emphasis on the possibility of benefiting in the Middle East from the European experience. After the CSCE was created, whenever an important political initiative was to be put forward, a way to do so was generally suggested to a group of neutral non-aligned states in Europe, who often acted as "go-betweens." Thus Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, San Marino and other neutral and non-aligned states, that previously did not have much to do with one another, formed a group that played a very important role within the CSCE in the initiation of a new project or the introduction of a new document. The agenda for the European CSCE was tailored especially to regional needs.
