. "BUILDING PARTNERSHIP ON THE STRENGTH OF EXPERIENCE: TRENDS, PRIORITIES, TOOLS FOR CONTINUED RUSSIAN-U.S. COOPERATION." Future of the Nuclear Security Environment in 2015: Proceedings of a Russian-U.S. Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2009.
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Future of the Nuclear Security Environment in 2015: Proceedings of a Russian—U.S. Workshop
could also be applied to this problem. Wit noted, for example, that the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program had been used to convert the Libyan research reactor to low-enriched uranium fuel. The same type of approach could be used, in cooperation with Moscow, to convert the North Korean Russian-designed research reactor.
SUMMARY REFLECTIONS OF CO-CHAIRS
The workshop has demonstrated once again the effectiveness of the scientific cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academies. The framework for such work is provided by joint committees formed to review and study the complex scientific and political problems that both our countries must address today.
This framework is unique in that the authors and experts participating can put forward independent points of view and provide knowledge and experience in a variety of areas, combining expertise in management and administration, political science, science and technology, and finance and economics. When such highly qualified individuals participate in a complex review with unequalled open discussion, they shed light on key problems that must be solved to strengthen international security over the coming years. Lack of explicit consensus for some of the questions covered is more an advantage than a disadvantage of such discussions, as critical priorities can thus be identified along a wide spectrum of problems.
The other advantage of such cooperation is the strict schedule that is maintained to complete the work. This strict format for NAS-RAS cooperation was earlier applied to the joint projects Overcoming Impediments to U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-proliferation (2004)347 and Strengthening U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-proliferation (2005).348 The present work is a logical continuation of these two projects and may serve as a model for continuing the fruitful work begun at this workshop.
In particular, as happened following the successful joint workshop in 2004, this workshop may provide a foundation upon which to develop recommendations for Moscow and Washington on how, in concrete terms, Russia and the United States may proceed in successfully transitioning to a relationship of full partnership. In this partnership, both the countries can serve as leaders, whether bilaterally and or on the international scene, responding to the difficult nuclear security challenges that will face us all in the coming decades.
347
Joint National Academies’ – Russian Academy of Sciences’ Committees on U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Overcoming Impediments to U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-Proliferation (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies’ Press, 2004). The full text of this report can be found at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10928; accessed April 8, 2008.
348
Joint National Academies’-Russian Academy of Sciences’ Committees on Strengthening U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-Proliferation, Strengthening U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Non-proliferation, (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies’ Press, 2005). The full text of this report can be found at http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11302; accessed April 8, 2008.
