History and mandate

The Forum for Security Co-operation is the OSCE’s key platform for matters in the politico-military dimension, where the 57 participating States work together to increase military security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian areas. Its establishment, mandate and successive mandate extensions were decided upon at some of the foundational CSCECSCE
Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe/OSCE meetings in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Forum was established at the Helsinki Summit 1992 as a decision-making body to consult on arms control, disarmament and confidence- and security-building, security co-operation and conflict prevention in the OSCE area.

The Budapest Document 1994 considerably enlarged the Forum’s responsibilities, with the States tasking it, among other things, to develop a framework for arms control, “including goals and methods for building, maintaining and improving stability and security in the CSCE region”.

With the Lisbon Document 1996, the participating States decided to give the Forum a new work programme, including developing “a web of arms control agreements” and addressing regional issues, for example by looking “at ways at making more effective use of its decision on ‘Stabilizing Measures for Localized Crisis Situations’.

A compilation document updated last in 2022 provides an overview of the various mandates of the Forum adopted over the years.

A set of mutually reinforcing and interlocking agreements and related information exchanges underpin the OSCE’s approach to military transparency and openness. A central document in this context is the Vienna Document, which is a series of agreements between the participating States on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures. Another is the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security adopted in Budapest in 1994.