The Helsinki Final Act at 50: Timeless Masterpiece or Relic of the Cold War?

On 1 August 1975, after years of painstaking negotiations, the largest European summit since the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) convened in Helsinki, Finland. Under the watchful eyes of more than a thousand journalists, thirty-five leaders, hailing from all European states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Canada signed a momentous agreement: the Helsinki Final Act. The product of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), this landmark document was celebrated by some as nothing less than a substitute peace treaty concluding the Second World War and hailed by others as a charter of ‘peaceful co-existence’ for the divided continent. In contrast, critics derided the Final Act precisely for these reasons, charging signatories with legitimising an immoral status quo imposed by Soviet imperialism and Communist authoritarianism.

Now, exactly 50 years later, the Final Act is widely remembered as a masterpiece of modern diplomacy and a victory of negotiation over confrontation. This Studium Generale event will look into the history of the Final Act – How was it negotiated? Why did it succeed? Who were the leading actors? – and it will discuss what its lessons are for today’s many international conflicts.

Dr. Kai Hebel will present his new book on the negotations: Britain, Détente, and the Helsinki CSCE': Fathers of the Final Act’ (2025). Next, he will discuss the book in a panel discussion chaired by Professor Giles Scott-Smith, with Professor Anne Deighton from the University of Oxford, Professor Daniel Thomas, and Professor Niels van Willigen.

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