ABSTRACT
Visions of a new European architecture based on collective security began to fade as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) tried—indecisively—to help resolve conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union. The 1975 CSCE Helsinki Final Act set out principles and provisions aimed at promoting cooperation in three areas or "baskets": political and military security; trade and technology; and human contacts. When detente broke down, the CSCE soon turned into a tribune of East-West rhetoric. The Common European Home was at first derided by the West: "A Home with barbed wire running through the living room," scoffed one wag. Several Western ministers repeated the expression at the conclusion of the Vienna meeting. In early 1990, with the end of the Cold War, Central and Eastern European countries hoped to join the institutions of Western European cooperation.
