France will host the representatives of the 56 members of OSCE from 26 to 30 April 2010; they will inspect a military installation (in this case an airbase), together with some conventional weaponry that has recently come into service. This visit is programmed in accordance with the Vienna Document, and is a practical illustration of the arms control obligations imposed on states as a result of a current treaty. These measures may seem anachronistic on a peaceful European continent. Do our peoples not all share the same aspirations? Are they not all seeking more political and economic liberty? Have we not managed our security problems jointly for a very long period of time? Does European security still imply the need to control conventional weapons?

Arms control⁽¹⁾ means firstly establishing, and then maintaining, a military balance between the states of a given geographic zone. This is not the same as disarmament. While the latter means the elimination (and, in some cases, the banning) of certain weapons, the former concerns limitations on weapons, their quantity, their lethality, and even extends to their deployment. Generally speaking it is implemented by stages: states agree to reduce the number of weapons systems deployed on their territory and then accept inspections by other states. This system depends on the triad ‘limitation, transparency and verification’, and functions on the basis of the reciprocity of the agreements of participating states.

A Security Mechanism Inherited From the Cold War

The UN Security Council, in its declaration on peacekeeping and international security of 19 November 2008,⁽²⁾ stated that arms control is the precursor of collective security.