Policies for Common Security

The basic idea of common security is not complex. It is that no country can obtain security, in the long run, simply by taking unilateral decisions about its own military forces. This is because security depends also on the actions and reactions of potential adversaries. Security has to be found in common with those adversaries. These ideas were considered in a SIPRI conference held in 1983. The conference had two main objectives. The first was to undertake a critical examination of the concept.