Overcoming the Second Cold War: The Conference on Disarmament in Europe and the Relaxation of East-West Tensions, 1983–1986

Abstract

This article focuses on the Conference on Disarmament in Europe (CDE), held under the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in the mid-1980s. By drawing on archival materials from the UK, France and the US, the article shows that the CDE, designed to discuss Confidence-Building Measures ranging from the Atlantic to the Urals, played an important role in overcoming the Second Cold War. Specifically, the article demonstrates that the CDE contributed in three ways. First, by becoming a sole-functioning arms control forum at its overture in January 1984, it de-escalated international tensions through dialogue. Second, by providing a first step in superpower arms talks in 1985, it underpinned US-Soviet cooperation. Third, by becoming the very first arms control agreement since the 1970s, it paved the way for subsequent arms control agreements, both nuclear and conventional. The article pays particular attention to the Western European countries, which played a vital role from its preparations in 1983 to the agreement in 1986. The findings make us reconsider the function of the oft-overlooked arms control framework in the process leading up to the end of the Cold War.