The first Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) ended with the Helsinki Final Act, signed on August 1, 1975, by the leaders of the thirtyfive participating states. Those states included Canada, the United States, the Western European democracies, and the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites, as well as a few neutral and nonaligned countries. For Moscow, the main objective of the Final Act was to confirm the postwar status quo, and to achieve political recognition of the territorial conquest of the Red Army and the ideological supremacy of communism. For the members of the Atlantic Alliance, the objective was to ease the political situation in Europe, especially between the two German states, and to underline the principles of the UN Charter.

Evolution from CSCE to OSCE

Long and difficult negotiations from 1973 to 1975 focused on...