ABSTRACT

This chapter briefly tracks some of the major causes and events during the rapid period of the conventional arms control negotiations between East and West during the 1980s. It illustrates state pre-eminence in the negotiation process. Between 1973 and 1989 the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction talks (MBFR), or more accurately, the 'Negotiations on the Mutual Reductions of Forces and Armaments and Associated Measures in Central Europe (MURFAAMCE), was the only forum for the discussion of East-West conventional arms control issues'. The Helsinki Final Act produced a number of confidence-building measures (CBMs) as part of its 'Basket I' 'Conclusions on Aspects of Military Security'. Those measures were relatively modest and largely of a voluntary nature. Mikhail Gorbachev's perception of the necessity to restructure domestic economic and political elements of Soviet society was thought possible if it could be accompanied by a change to the Soviet role in the international system.