ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the application of confidence-building measures (CBM) preceded by its conceptual exploration. The term 'confidence-building measures' entered the diplomatic language following the negotiation of some modest measures during the 1975 CSCE Helsinki Conference. The former Warsaw Pact nations adamantly opposed any discussion of CBMs in the CSCE, and the Western states, which proposed them, had no clear view of what they wanted to accomplish, or how it was to be done. Western officials were quick to play down the CBM's military value, suggesting instead that they were political and psychological in nature. CBMs would have the beneficial role of deterring the display of large military forces for political intimidation, or raising the political cost of any Soviet-led intervention in Eastern Europe. Equally important to the development of the CBM concept was the growing disappointment in the late 1970s with the results of arms-control negotiations. CBMs are now associated predominantly with a 'confidence-building process'.
