The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE)

Abstract

At the end of the Second World War no peace conference was convened as is the usual practice to settle outstanding points resulting from the conflict, especially the recognition of new frontiers. This was because distrust soon emerged among the victorious allies and the so called cold war crept in between the countries of the west and the Soviet Union in the east. The Berlin crisis and the Korean War were prominent peaks in this cold war. One result of this was the creation of NATO. The USA, France and the United Kingdom also sought to normalise the conditions in that part of Germany which they occupied, thus leading to the creation of the Federal Republic and to drawing it into NATO. The USSR sought to arrest this development and it made a proposal at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the great powers in Berlin in 1954 to convene a European conference to conclude an all-European treaty on collective security in Europe. [excerpt]