Publisher's Synopsis
* A practical guide to the OSCE This volume is the first complete collection of the documents agreed and adopted within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE process, initiated in Helsinki in 1973, has covered various areas of the relations between states- political and military matters, economic and environmental problems, culture, and education. In recent years, issues of political and military security have given rise to new institutions and structure and to fundamental agreements and treaties concerning not only confidence- and security-building measures (the Vienna Documents, the Open Skies Treaty), but also conventional arms and armaments reductions (CFE and CFE-1A). Complex mechanisms to prevent conflicts, develop preventive diplomacy, solve crisis situations, and settle disputes have been set up. The OSCE has been instrumental in promoting these changes, and has adapted to the task of managing them. The new structures and organs, their new mandates, and the functions evolving within the OSCE constitute a framework for a security organization in and for Europe.
