The CSCE and the End of the Cold War: Diplomacy, Societies and Human Rights, 1972-1990

Since its inception, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe has faced controversy. Today it is widely regarded as a contributing factor in the end of the Cold War, with some observers even claiming that it ushered in a "post-Westphalian" era in which multilateral diplomacy and social processes drive geopolitics. Bringing together new and innovative research on the CSCE, this volume revisits key questions in Cold War historiography: To what extent did states aid or resist the emergence of a "Helsinki paradigm?" Was the CSCE an effective response to democratic aspirations? And what was the role of nonstate actors in the eventual transformation of Europe?

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Nicolas Badalassi and Sarah B. Snyder Abbreviations Chronology of CSCE Meetings PART I: DIPLOMATS, DIPLOMACIES AND THE MAKING OF THE CSCE Chapter 1. The Human Dimension of the CSCE, 1975-1990 Andrei Zagorski Chapter 2. Executors or Creative Deal-Makers?: The Role of the Diplomats in the Making of the Helsinki CSCE Martin D. Brown and Angela Romano Chapter 3. From Talleyrand to Sakharov: French Diplomacy in Search of a 'Helsinki Effect' Nicolas Badalassi Chapter 4. 'Human Rights, Peace and Security are Inseparable';: Max Kampelman and the Helsinki Process Stephan Kieninger PART II: THE TRANSNATIONAL PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ROLE OF DISSIDENCE Chapter 5. The Committee of Concerned Scientists and the Helsinki Final Act: 'Refuznik' Scientists, Detente and Human Rights Elisabetta Vezzosi Chapter 6. Seeing the Value of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights, Peace and Transnational Debates about Detente, 1981-1988 Christian P. Peterson Chapter 7. The Importance of the Helsinki Final Act for the Opposition in Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Peace Movements in the 1980s Jacek Czaputowicz Chapter 8. The Limits of Repression: Soviet-Bloc Security Services vs. Transnational Helsinki Networks, 1976-1986 Douglas Selvage Chapter 9. Helsinki at Home: NGOs, the Helsinki Final Act and Politics in the United States, 1975-1985 Carl Bon Tempo PART III: THE POLITICS OF THE CSCE IN EUROPE Chapter 10. European Detente and the CSCE: Austria and the Central European Theatre in the 1970s and 1980s Maximilian Graf Chapter 11. Saving Detente: The Federal Republic of Germany and the CSCE in the 1980s Matthias Peter Chapter 12. Transformation by Linkage?: Arms Control, Human Rights and the Rift between Moscow and East Berlin in the Late 1980s Oliver Bange Chapter 13. CSCE: Albania the Outsider in European Political Life Hamit Kaba Conclusion Sarah B. Snyder and Nicolas Badalassi Index

About the Author :
Nicolas Badalassi is an Associate Professor of Contemporary History at the University of South Brittany. He is the author of En finir avec la guerre froide: La France, l'Europe et le processus d'Helsinki, 1965-1975 (2014).

Review :
"This excellent volume stands at the forefront of scholarship in the field and will certainly make an important contribution to our understanding of the complex developments that led to the end of the Cold War." - Aryo Makko, Stockholm University and Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study "The essays in this volume illuminate just what the Helsinki process entailed and help explain the multidimensional ways in which it facilitated the end of the Cold War--everything from building bridges between groups to keeping dialogue going when the Cold War refroze in the early 1980s and connecting lower-level politics to high politics." - Jaclyn Stanke, Campbell University "Bold in ambition and scope, this collection highlights transnational history at its finest. It covers an impressive amount of terrain, allowing for a more layered and nuanced understanding of the CSCE." - Garret Martin, American University