ABSTRACT
The negotiations on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) were initiated in early 1989, and were successfully concluded by the Paris Treaty of November 1990. The history of arms control and disarmament in the East-West context, leads to the first and foremost lesson of CFE for the Middle East context: arms control generates very few positive results when implemented without a political settlement of the confrontation at stake. If arms control is sought in isolation from conflict resolution, negotiations might even damage the parties' interests. Regarding the more technical and military aspects of the CFE negotiation and treaty, two interesting aspects might be particularly relevant to arms control in the Middle East: that CFE focused on conventional arms, and that the treaty established the notion of deep but mostly asymmetrical cuts. The CFE mandate of 1989 stipulated that negotiations exclusively encompass conventional armed forces, including aircraft and helicopters.
