ABSTRACT
Arms control has been closely connected with the East-West conflict. The concept of arms control in its modern form was created in the early 1960s as an answer to the specific problems concerning confrontation and arms races in the nuclear age. The critics' strongest argument refers to the famous arms control dilemma, whereby arms control must necessarily remain meaningless in a high tension environment, whereas, in a low tension environment, it becomes superfluous. Given the variety of tensions and potential conflicts, arms control is of utmost importance in helping to avoid worst cases and build a European peace order. The end of the East-West conflict and the disintegration of the USSR have fundamentally changed the character of nuclear deterrence and the dangers associated with nuclear weapons. Conventional arms control measures on a global or regional scale outside the Conference on Security and Cooperation are rather limited and mainly oriented toward confidence-building and transparency.
