Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), international organization established as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1973, during the cold war , to promote East-West cooperation. Headquarters are in Prague, Czech Republic. The CSCE's 1975 meeting in Helsinki, Finland, ratified the acts commonly known as the Helsinki Accords, which were signed by every European nation (except Albania, which did so later) and the United States and Canada. The OSCE is responsible for reviewing the implementation of those accords. Since the end of the cold war, it has also aimed to foster peace, prosperity, and justice in Europe. There are now 56 OSCE members, including all European nations, all former republics of the Soviet Union, and the United States and Canada.

The Helsinki Accords held the post-World War II European border arrangements to be permanent, and the signers agreed to respect the human rights and civic freedoms of their citizens, as well as to undertake various forms of international cooperation. Although the nonbinding accords did not have treaty status, they were the first international agreement signed by the Soviet Union to mention the rights of free speech and travel. The human-rights provisions had a significant role in galvanizing Soviet and other Eastern European dissidents in the late 1970s, who organized committees to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Subsequent conferences have been held in various European cities. At the 1990 Paris summit, leaders of the member nations signed a declaration respecting the territorial integrity of Europe, an act that signaled the end of the cold war; limitations were also placed on the size of conventional forces in Europe. An additional agreement in 1992 and a revised treaty in 1999 (still unratified) placed further limitations on conventional forces.

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe a series of negotiations held by thirty-three European states, Canada, and the United States to address the security and stability of Europe. On August 1, 1975, it culminated in the signing of the CSCE Final Act, also called the Helsinki Accords, which established diplomacy for the remainder of the Cold War, including the inviolability of existing borders, nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states, and respect for human rights. In 1994 it was renamed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) involved thirty‐three European states plus the United States and Canada in a series of negotiations bridging the East‐West divide through the 1970s and 1980s. Washington linked initial U.S. participation to settlement of the status of Berlin and Soviet agreement to parallel talks on conventional force reductions (the MBFR). The CSCE Final Act, signed in Helsinki on 1 August 1975, codified the diplomatic “rules of the road” for the remainder of the Cold War, including the inviolability of frontiers, nonintervention, and respect for human rights.

Publication of the Final Act catalyzed an upsurge of activity for human rights and in opposition to totalitarianism across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the mid‐late 1970s. CSCE review meetings in Belgrade (1977–78), Madrid (1980–83), and Vienna (1986–89) focused on implementation and extension of the Final Act, especially in the areas of human rights and military confidence‐building measures. By 1989, the political principles established by the Final Act were widely credited with contributing to the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe.

After the Cold War, the CSCE established a permanent Secretariat in Prague, a Conflict Prevention Center in Vienna, an Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, and an Office on National Minorities in the Hague. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and the accession of Albania, membership in the CSCE increased from thirty‐five to fifty‐three states. In 1994, it was renamed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Since then, the OSCE has supervised democratic elections, promoted respect for human rights in new laws and constitutions, and negotiated and monitored cease‐fires throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
[See also Helsinki Watch.]

Bibliography

John J. Maresca , To Helsinki: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1972–1975, 1987.
Daniel C. Thomas , The Power of International Norms: Human Rights, the Helsinki Accords and the Demise of Communism, forthcoming 2000.

Daniel C. Thomas