ABSTRACT

The upheavals in Central and Eastern Europe and the dramatic events in the Soviet Union since autumn 1991 have led to the end of the East-West conflict. This chapter discusses the major conflicts and challenges confronting Europe and explains why Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) -- in order to facilitate future conflict resolution in Europe -- should become the main organization for developing regimes. The dissolution of the prevailing conflict structure has led to fundamental new problems. Western liberal democracies have won the "Cold War". The CSCE is a regime-building negotiating process which was developed to a rudimentary international organization in 1990. The decisive value of CSCE diplomacy has been the gradual process of "civilization," through which East-West conflicts were mitigated by compromises and by the obligation of vindicating non-cooperation or violations of CSCE norms.