Rethinking Confidence-Building Measures

In Rethinking Confidence-Building Measures , Marie-France Desjardins warns against the uncritical pursuit of CBMs--often seen as the fastest growing sector on the post-Cold War diplomatic agenda--and argues that the idea has been oversold. She asserts that obstacles to meaningful agreements are much more important than usually acknowledged, and that political and military ramifications have been generally ignored. She concludes that the same effort, painstaking negotiation, and possibilities for failure are inherent in CBMs as in the wide array of other potential solutions for managing interstate security relations, but with far fewer substantial results.

Since March 1995, Marie-France Desjardins has worked as a Research Associate at the IISS, analysing Confidence-Building Measures. Prior to joining IISS, she worked as a researcher in Ottawa, at the Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament and at the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security. She served as an expert analyst on the Canadian delegation to the United Nations 1990 Fourth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. She is currently completing a Doctorate analysing the early European experience with Confidence-Building measures at the Department of War Studies at Kings College, London under the supervision of its Director, Professor Lawrence Freedman.