Confidence-Building Measure

A confidence-building measure is an action that reflects goodwill or a willingness to exchange information with an adversary. The purpose of such is to decrease misunderstanding, tension, fear, anxiety, and conflict between two or more parties by emphasizing trust and limiting conflict escalation as a form of preventive diplomacy. Confidence-building measures have traditionally been discussed within issues of war, security, and peacekeeping, but can now be seen within political and diplomatic spheres.

The Henry L. Stimson Center has outlined four main types of confidence-building measures: communication, constraint, transparency, and verification. Communication prevents crisis through averting tension. The methods involved in communication measures are hotlines—either presidential or military based, regional communication centers, and consultations. Constraint measures control levels and types of power; this has been achieved in military spheres through decreasing deployment in certain areas—specifically borders and prenotification of military activities. Transparency measures generate openness between parties by establishing requirements for prenotification and information exchange. Verification reduces vulnerability and mistrust of goodwill in the military sphere through aerial and ground-based sensors. In areas of diplomacy, verification is attained through written agreements, independent observations, inspections, and treaties.

Confidence-building measures originated during the Cold War, with hotlines established between various statesmen and military personnel in the United States and the Soviet Union. A central example of the use of a confidence-building measure can be given in reference to South Asia and the 1972 conflict between India and Pakistan. Following this conflict, the two countries established the following measures: communication hotlines, an agreement on prior notification of military exercises, and consensus on the nonattack of nuclear facilities. Following these agreements, confidence-building measures were first formally implemented in the 1975 Helsinki Conference of Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Beyond military use, the World Trade Organization introduced various confidence-building measures in response to the Seattle protests of 2000. The measures introduced by the then–Director General Mike Moore and Chairmen of the General Council Ambassador Bryn specifically focused upon transparency and communication initiatives: increased participation and communication to identify the difficulties facing developing countries, a reassessment of technical cooperation and capacity-building initiatives, and increased openness in regards to implementation issues and concerns.

Confidence-building measures have been criticized in both the military and diplomatic spheres for their lack of reciprocal effectiveness. Such measures have been undermined by the failed peace settlements in the Middle East and their ineffectiveness in sub-Saharan Africa and conflict zones where—in some areas—no shared beliefs, trust, or common interests exist. Methods of verification can also undermine communication, constraint, and transparency through a lack of trust. In regards to the World Trade Organization, it has been argued that such measures are mere rhetoric that adversely produces a lack of confidence among developing countries. It has been [Page 138]argued that the concept is only relevant in specific regard to the Cold War.