ABSTRACT
When the Stockholm CDE began in January 1984, the discussions immediately and predictably became impaled on the horns of a longstanding policy dilemma: the two different, and apparently opposing, US and Soviet approaches to building confidence in their relationship. This chapter analyzes official Soviet statements on confidence-building measures (CBMs), as well as the views expressed in the writings of Soviet specialists in the Foreign Ministry and Academy of Sciences institutes devoted to the study of international relations. In Soviet statements, there is a standard distinction between CBMs of a "political-legal" and "military-technical" type, the former claimed to have "the most direct relation to strengthening confidence among states." The official Soviet approach, however, is that there is a danger that agreement on "military-technical" measures will create the illusion of improved political relations and divert attention from the "real issues" of arms reduction and general strategic stability.
