EN
The end of the Cold War provided the international community with an unprecedented opportunity to overcome numerous historical antagonisms, crises and conflicts, but at the same time to face up to new challenges and threats in many parts of the world. A crucial, inspiring role has been played by confidence-building measures (CBMs), especially in the OSCE area. The culmination of CBM development took place in the 1990s, but the processes of strengthening politico-military confidence and trust continued to evolve, at various paces and with varying degrees of success, in non-European contexts in the following decades. Political-military solutions in this field do not necessarily imitate those of the OSCE, and more and more bravely make use of indigenous concepts. Nowadays, the dynamics of confidence building has slackened due to changes in world politics, although the military CBMs still offer a security cushion against “foul weather” developments in international relations.