Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (1990)

Treaty hailed as a landmark arms control agreement concluded between the former enemies of the Cold War. The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) was signed in November 1990 by 22 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Warsaw Pact countries. The treaty grew out of discussions held between 1986 and 1989 as part of the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the predecessor to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe).

Security analysts viewed the CFE as a key element in ensuring military stability and predictability in the chaotic years following the collapse of communism. The CFE established equal ceilings for NATO and Warsaw Pact land-based forces in the area between the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains. The limits for each side were 20,000 battle tanks, 30,000 armored combat vehicles, 20,000 artillery pieces, 6,800 combat aircraft, and 2,000 attack helicopters.

Because the former Eastern bloc had a vast numerical superiority in ground forces, the treaty effectively meant large-scale downsizing for the Soviets and for the central and Eastern Europeans; NATO, on the other hand, had to make only small cuts in its forces. These developments assuaged fears in the West of a massive Soviet attack of conventional forces. Since the treaty came into force in 1992, more than 50,000 pieces of heavy military equipment have been destroyed. Some critics, however, regretted the treaty did not go far enough and call for larger cutbacks.

Experts have praised the CFE's mandated verification procedures and information exchanges as a significant step toward increased transparency among Europe's military forces. These procedures have included thousands of unprecedented site inspections to verify the destruction or decommissioning of over-the-limit weaponry.

Historical events quickly outpaced the CFE treaty, however, as the Warsaw Pact dissolved and the Soviet Union collapsed, leading to the inclusion of the former Soviet states as additional signatories. The new map of Eastern Europe and central Asia generated new concerns about the CFE limits, particularly among Russia and Ukraine, which resulted in some changes to the treaty during the late 1990s, including the Flank Agreement of 1996. The Adaptation Agreement, signed at the Istanbul Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Summit in November 1999, amended the CFE to adjust to new geostrategic realities. Since the conclusion of the treaty, NATO has also accepted many former communist countries as members, beginning with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in 1999.