The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security organization composed of 56 participating States from Europe, Central Asia, and North America. The OSCE comprehensive and cooperative approach to security deals with a wide range of security-related issues including arms control, preventive diplomacy, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, democratization, election monitoring and economic and environmental security. Conventional arms control and confidence- and security-building regimes remain major instruments for ensuring military stability, predictability and transparency.