International cooperation and the rules of change: A neo-institutional approach to the Helsinki process

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe has been an important agent of international cooperation and change. The present analysis spans from 1975, the year in which the CSCE was established, to 1990, the year in which the CSCE was endowed with a permanent organizational structure. This early CSCE phase is known as "the Helsinki process". The present study looks at the impact of this process upon the end of the Cold War in Europe. The analysis begins with a critique of traditional regime theory and justifies the adoption of a neo-institutional approach to the study of the CSCE. What the author calls a neo-institutional approach (1) puts the evolution of a regime or its historical development at the center of analysis and (2) focuses on the interaction between international institutions and non-governmental organizations--respectively "above" and "below" the level of the state. The author maintains that well grounded institutions are ones which exert a broad societal impact. The main assumption is that the more "informal" an institution, the broader its societal impact. This appreciation of informality stems from the consideration of the "constitutive" and/or transformational nature of institutional rules. To this effect, the author suggests that institutions be seen, first and foremost, as "rule-making" processes. The study is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the formation of CSCE rules through a linguistic analysis of the main CSCE text: the Helsinki Final Act. The second part looks at the actual impact of CSCE rules, through an analysis of the principal social practices and/or epistemic communities which emerged in the wake of the Final Act. The third part looks at the recent transformation of the CSCE into a "formal" organization (OSCE). Empirical findings confirm the author's main contention that the Helsinki process or institution exerted a broad societal impact. This impact was facilitated by the informality of the process, which stimulated participation "from below"--of peace movements and human rights groups in particular--while triggering a merging of NGO discourses in support of the main Helsinki idea of a linkage between security and human rights. This linkage worked to undermine the Cold War in Europe--or the legitimacy of the political-military status quo--as it was perceived and sustained by society at large as the basis of a new, more humane security "order-to-be" beyond the East-West divide.