Pan-European Options: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe

Abstract

The CSCE has emerged as an important security organization and deserves attention mainly because the breakdown of the bipolar confrontation in Europe has made the concerns of NATO and the WEU, organizations that evolved as a result of the instability of the early Cold War years, seem outdated.¹ To some, the CSCE promises a more representative basis for planning European security since it encompasses all of Europe (including the CIS) rather than just Western Europe, as well as Canada and the USA. The refusal of other European institutions to consider full membership for Eastern Europe will probably lead to pressure on the CSCE to take on much of the burden for non-military threats to European security. The CSCE is the only institution that can lay claim to being pan-European. The Prague Council meeting of January 1992 granted ‘participating state’ status to all former Soviet republics — thus creating a security area from Vancouver to Vladivostock which goes far beyond North America or Europe, to include Central Asia and the Far East. Significantly, the Helsinki summit of the same year took the decision to invite Japan to participate, as a non-participating state, in CSCE meetings, thereby tying together aspects of European and Asian security.