Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) - often seen as the fastest growing sector on the post-Cold War diplomatic agenda - are increasingly viewed by the international community as useful instruments for addressing a range of security and diplomatic issues. Rethinking Confidence-Building Measures warns against an uncritical pursuit of CBMs, arguing that the idea has been oversold. The author asserts that obstacles to meaningful agreements are much more important than usually acknowledged, and the political and military ramifications have beengenerally 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.

Marie-France Desjardins' profile page

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 Candian Institute for InternationalPeace 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-Buildingmeasures at the Department of War Studies at Kings College, London under the supervision of its Director, Professor Lawrence Freedman.