Geneva, Helsinki, and the Making of the CSCE

Sacha Zala and Thomas Bürgisser (eds.):
Geneva, Helsinki, and the Making of the CSCE. International Diplomatic Documents on the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1969–1975
(Quaderni di Dodis – fonti, vol. 30)

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe culminated in the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, a document that many contemporaries dismissed as little more than a diplomatic compromise. Yet history would prove otherwise. The Final Act was deliberately ambiguous, but not devoid of substance. This volume presents more than 100 documents edited by the International Ed itors of Diplomatic Documents from fifteen countries (Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and two international or ganisations (EU and NATO). Together, they trace the process from the Budapest Appeal of March 1969, through the painstaking negotiations in Helsinki and Geneva, to the signing of the CSCE Final Act in August 1975, which established an enduring framework for political and security cooperation. Collectively, they offer a multi-perspective account of one of the most significant achievements of European multilateral diplomacy during the Cold War.

About the authors
Sacha Zala (*1968): Prof. Dr., Historian, Director of the Dodis research centre and professor at the University of Bern.
Thomas Bürgisser (*1979): Dr., Historian, Vice director and Editor-in-Chief of the Dodis research centre.