CONVENTIONAL FORCES IN EUROPE TREATY

CONVENTIONAL FORCES IN EUROPE TREATY

The United States, the Soviet Union, and twenty other member countries of the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) and
the Warsaw Pact signed the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty on November 19, 1990.
The most complex and comprehensive conventional ARMS CONTROL treaty in history, the CFE limits levels of conventional—that is, nonnuclear—weapons and equipment with the
purpose of creating greater military stability in Europe. The CFE played a crucial stabilizing role during the breakup of the Soviet Union and its
satellite states in Eastern Europe during the late 1980s and early 1990s. It also made possible steep reductions in U.S. troop and equipment levels in Europe. In a period of remarkable historical change that transformed the political map of Europe, the treaty’s provisions enabled a “velvet” rather than a violent revolution.
The CFE grew out of arms control negotia-
tions between the United States and the Soviet
Union during the 1980s. In particular, treaty
negotiations were prompted by a 1986 call for
conventional arms control by Soviet president
Mikhail Gorbachev, and a 1989 proposal by U.S.
president GEORGE H.W. BUSH to limit the United
States and the Soviet Union to 275,000 troops
each in Europe. However, as the Soviet satellites
gained independence in the late 1980s and early
1990s and large numbers of U.S. and Soviet
troops were transferred out of Europe, the initial
level of troops proposed by Bush proved need-
lessly high, and subsequent negotiations focused
on armaments alone.
By November 1990, a treaty had been com-
pleted. Meeting in Paris, Bush, Gorbachev, and
other leaders signed the CFE that month. The
U.S. Senate approved it on November 25, 1991,
by a vote of 90–4.
The treaty placed limits on five types of con-
ventional armaments deployed between the
Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains: tanks,
artillery, armored combat vehicles (such as
armored personnel carriers), aircraft, and heli-
copters. It divided the area covered by the agree-
ment into subzones, each having its own
equipment limits. The agreement limited NATO
and the Warsaw Pact each to 20,000 tanks, 30,000
armored combat vehicles, 20,000 artillery pieces,
6,800 combat aircraft, and 2,000 attack helicop-
ters. The treaty did not address naval forces.
As originally designed, the CFE was meant
to stabilize relations between NATO and the
Warsaw Pact. NATO, for its part, sought to relo-
cate Soviet forces eastward from the German
border and to prevent their concentration in the
Soviet Union west of the Urals. After the disso-
lution of the Warsaw Pact on July 1, 1991, and
the breakup of the Soviet Union into 15 separate
nations in December 1991, the CFE began to
change its focus from management of the COLD
WAR standoff to management of the effects of
the Cold War’s conclusion.
Later amendments adapted the treaty to the
changing European political situation. On May
15, 1992, the Commonwealth of Independent
States—the 15 successor states of the Soviet
Union—ratified armament limits in their terri-
tories as specified by the CFE limits for the War-
saw Pact nations. All adherents to the treaty met
subsequent arms reduction targets, though Rus-
sia continued to negotiate changes owing to
unrest in Chechnya and other regions within its
borders. By September 1994 the CFE had
resulted in the destruction of more than 18,000
pieces of military equipment, including 6,000 by
the Russian Federation.
The CFE enjoys widespread support in
Europe and appears likely to remain in force for
some time. CFE supporters argue that its arma-
ment limits and inspection requirements pre-
vent an arms race and enhance the exchange of
information between European countries,
allowing each member nation to easily assess the military capabilities of its neighbors.
FURTHER READINGS
Croft, Stuart, ed. 1994. The Conventional Armed Forces in
Europe Treaty: The Cold War Endgame. Brookfield, Vt.:
Dartmouth.
Falkenrath, Richard A. 1995. Shaping Europe’s Military
Order: The Origins and Consequences of the CFE Treaty.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
McCausland, Jeffrey D. 1995. “The CFE Treaty: Building
European Security.” Strategic Forum, no. 48 (October).
National Defense Univ. Press.
Peters, John E., and National Defense Research Institute.
2000. The Changing Quality of Stability in Europe: The
Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty Toward 2001. Santa
Monica, Calif.: Rand.
—. 1997. CFE and Military Stability in Europe. Santa
Monica, Calif.: Rand.
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE): Briefing
of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe. 1997.Washington, D.C.: The Commission.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Arms Control and Disarmament; Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty; Strategic Arms Reduction Talks.