10. Conventional arms control*

Zdzislaw Lachowski

A long-awaited breakthrough in the European conventional arms control regime came about in 1999. The Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and the Vienna Document 1999 on Confidence- and Security-building Measures were signed at the Istanbul OSCE Summit Meeting in November. This stood in contrast to growing divergences between NATO and Russia regarding the latter’s opposition to NATO enlargement, their worsened relations in the wake of the Kosovo intervention and the war in Chechnya. The intervention in Kosovo also marred regional arms control endeavours in the Balkans, but some progress was reported in the latter part of the year.
The modernization of confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs) in Europe was concluded after a two-year-long negotiation. The most important element, regional approaches included in the Vienna Document 1999, should help to better handle contingencies below the pan-European level. The Kosovo crisis and the conflict in Chechnya became a test for the ‘foul weather’ relevance of CSBMs. The regional CSBM experiment in the Balkans is proceeding fairly well, although still under the umbrella of international institutions and military forces. Hopefully, the evolving network of various arms control-related agreements in the region will inject enough stability and security to help make the Balkan peace process irreversible.
Conventional arms control outside Europe was rather uneventful in 1999, reflecting the general stalemate in this field.

• CSBMs in Europe are reviewed by Zdzislaw Lachowski in Appendix 10A.

• Appendix 10B contains documents on conventional arms control: the Vienna Document 1999, the Amended CFE Treaty and the Final Act of the Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.