Research Collection Monograph Keeping the process alive The N+N and the CSCE follow-up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975-1986) Author(s): Fischer, Thomas Publication Date: 2012 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-007608098 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library ZÜRCHER BEITRÄGE ZUR SICHERHEITSPOLITIK NR. 84 Thomas Fischer KEEPING THE PROCESS ALIVE: THE N+N AND THE CSCE FOLLOW-UP FROM HELSINKI TO VIENNA (1975 – 1986) Series editor: Andreas Wenger Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich All issues of the “Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik”, as well as the other publications of the Center for Security Studies (CSS), can also be accessed as e-publications at: www.css.ethz.ch/publications. Series editor: Andreas Wenger Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich © 2012 Center for Security Studies (CSS) ETH Zurich Haldeneggsteig 4, IFW 8092 Zurich / Switzerland [email protected] All rights reserved. This material may not be reprinted or reproduced in photographic or electronic format, in part or in whole, without written permission from the Center for Security Studies (CSS). The opinions expressed in the “Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik” reflect the personal views of the authors in question. Layout: Miriam Dahinden Print: City Druck AG, Zurich ISBN: 978-3-905696-39-4 ISSN: 1662-3711 ZÜRCHER BEITRÄGE ZUR SICHERHEITSPOLITIK NR. 84 Thomas Fischer KEEPING THE PROCESS ALIVE: THE N+N AND THE CSCE FOLLOW-UP FROM HELSINKI TO VIENNA (1975 – 1986) Series editor: Andreas Wenger Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich CSS ETH Zurich To little Frederik, who has brought a whole new experience to life. CONTENTS Preface 5 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 10 1 DisappointedHopes:TheFollow-UpinBelgrade1977/78 25 1.1 From Helsinki to Belgrade (1975 – 1977) 25 1.2 The Belgrade Preparatory Meeting (15 June – 5 August 1977) 35 1.3 The Belgrade Follow-Up Meeting (4 October 1977 – 8 March 1978) 42 1.4 Assessment of the Belgrade Results 58 2 LifelinetotheHelsinkiProcess:TheFollow-UpinMadrid1980–83 63 2.1 From Belgrade to Madrid (1978–1980) 63 2.2 Providing a Way out of the Limbo of the Preparatory Meeting (9 September – 11 November 1980) 78 2.3 Attempts to Negotiate a Final Document – Take 1 (The Informal N+N Non-Paper of 31 March 1981) 85 2.4 Summer Break 1981 and Neutral Bridge-Building (Part I) 94 2.5 Attempt for a Final Document – Take 2 (CSCE/RM/39 of 16 December 1981) 98 2.6 Summer Break 1982 and Neutral Bridge-Building (Part II) 103 2.7 “Last Attempt” for a Final Document (CSCE/RM/39rev. of 15 March 1983) 106 2.8 End Game – The Brunner-González Negotiations of June 1983 112 2.9 Assessment of Madrid 115 3 BridgetotheViennaMeeting:TheSpecialMeetings Between1984and1986 120 3.1 CDE I: Talks on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in Stockholm 121 3.2 The Non-Military Follow-Up Meetings after Madrid 129 3.3 Outlook on the Vienna Meeting 148 Keeping the Process Alive: The N+N and the CSCE Follow-Up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975 – 1986) 4 Conclusions 151 5 Bibliography 163 5.1 Archival Sources 163 5.2 Published Sources 164 5.3 Participants’ Accounts 164 5.4 Literature 167 5.5 Oral History 174 6 ListofAbbreviations 176 Keeping the Process Alive: The N+N and the CSCE Follow-Up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975 – 1986) PREFACE As Switzerland and Serbia are preparing to take over the presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in a two-year Chairmanship package for 2014 and 2015 respectively, this provides opportunity to look back into these countries’ legacies in the multilateral European security framework. The OSCE nowadays is an international institution somewhat in the shadows of the European Union, the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- tion. Coming to life during a brief period of relaxation of tensions in the Cold War during the 1970s, its predecessor, the Conference on Se- curity and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), however, turned out to be the central forum for East-West negotiations in Europe over the fol- lowing two decades. At the time the neutral and non-aligned states (N+N), including Switzerland and former Yugoslavia, played a particular role in bridging the gaps in European security talks between the opposing military blocs of NATO/EC and Warsaw Pact/COMECON. Indeed, as this study shows, the contribution of the N+N to keeping the CSCE negotiating process alive in the early 1980s during the most critical years of crises in the later Cold War period was crucial. Although the geo-strategic and ideological context is altogether different today, there still might be some lessons to learn under what conditions European non-alliance member states can come into play to move multilateral negotiations forward. The CSCE experience with its open negotiation structure and all-inclusive thematic approach is a case in point. The study at hand meticulously traces the role of the European neu- tral and non-aligned states in the CSCE history beyond the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 making widespread use of previously unexplored pri- vate and public archival material and oral history sources. Its author, Thomas Fischer, who has emerged once as a young scholar from our Center, has established himself in the past decade as a leading interna- tional expert on the neutral and non-aligned states participation in the CSCE process. Following up on his Neutral Power in the CSCE: The N+N States and the Making of the Helsinki Accords 1975, I am happy to present his new study as the latest addition to the Zürcher Beiträge zur 5 Keeping the Process Alive: The N+N and the CSCE Follow-Up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975 – 1986) Sicherheitspolitik. I would like to thank him for his most profound study, which is once more at the forefront of historical research on the sub- ject. I am also grateful to Miriam Dahinden for her careful layout work. Zurich, November 2012 Prof. Andreas Wenger Director, Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich 6 Keeping the Process Alive: The N+N and the CSCE Follow-Up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975 – 1986) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As always, there are a number of people the author would like to thank for their help and assistance in the making of this study. In 2008, after spending four years in Vienna, I had finished a manuscript on the Neu- tral and Non-Aligned States (N+N) and the Making of the Helsinki Final Act 1975. I already had in mind a continuation of my research in the field with a sequel on the bridge-building role of the N+N in the CSCE Follow-Up Process from 1975 to 1989. Decisive encouragement for this project came from Odd Arne Westad when I first presented the tentative hypothesis of the N+N as an important lifeline to the Helsinki Process in the period of renewed East-West tensions in the later Cold War at a conference in Copenhagen in late 2007. After my return from Austria to Switzerland in 2008, it was Jussi Hanhimäki from The Graduate Institute of International and Devel- opment Studies in Geneva who helped me “to set up tent” as a visiting research fellow and lecturer at his institute for the coming years with my new project. The staff of the International History and Politics Unit at the Graduate Institute in Geneva gave me a warm welcome and pro- vided a stimulating surrounding for my research. In particular, I would not want to omit to thank Valérie von Daeniken on the administrative side as well as my teaching assistant Bernhard Blumenau for all their support during my time at the institute. In 2009, I had the possibility to spend one month at the University of Helsinki at the invitation of my colleague Juhana Aunesluoma for the purpose of archival research in the Finnish Foreign Ministry Archive. Juhana seconded to me his research assistant Sampo Lindgren during my stay in Helsinki for the purpose of unlocking the Finnish language materials, which otherwise would not have been accessible to me due to my lack of knowledge in Finnish. Sampo spent many hours sitting with me in the archive translating first-hand documentary material. Juhani and Elisabeth Karppinen, as on previous occasions, lent me the use of their flat in Helsinki for that stay, for which I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude. My research in Finland was made possible finan- cially by a research grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation for 7 Keeping the Process Alive: The N+N and the CSCE Follow-Up from Helsinki to Vienna (1975 – 1986) international short-term visits. Jussi Hanhimäki and Odd Arne Westad have helpfully supported this grant application. In Vienna, my good colleague Erwin A. Schmidl, head of contem- porary history at the Institute for Strategy and Security Studies of the Austrian National Defence Academy, as well as the Finnish head of mission to the OSCE, Antti Turunen, were helpful in setting up oral history workshops in 2008 and 2009 on the history of the neutral states in the CSCE follow-up process. In Helsinki, retired diplomat Markku Reimaa was similarly instrumental in convening a number of former Finnish CSCE colleagues for an oral history roundtable during my stay in October 2009. Another important source for this project came from former Swiss CSCE diplomat Hans-Jörg Renk. As for my previous project, he let me use all the private archival materials he retained from ten years of CSCE diplomacy, including highly insightful notes from the Belgrade and Ma- drid follow-up meetings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.