ABSTRACT
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe is a forum in which every European state, large or small, can contribute to strengthening security in Europe. The new talks on conventional arms feature bolder guidelines than the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction talks: they cover Europe from the Atlantics to the Urals, not just Central Europe; and they embrace categories of weapons, not just manpower. The primary tool for monitoring compliance in reality is national technical means of various sorts. The confidence-building measures and security-building measures continued in the Stockholm agreement are more militarily significant than those in the 1975 Final Act. The conference was to be held outside the framework of military alliances and its decision-making process was based on the principle of consensus. The conference was to conduct its work through various working bodies—the coordinating assembly, committees, subcommittees and working groups—open to all participating countries, and the chairmanship was to rotate.
