Overcoming Impediments to U.S.-Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Nonproliferation Report of a Joint Workshop (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Summary of Workshop Discussions
Summary of Workshop Discussions
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As a record of those discussions, the report includes opinions and recommendations from individuals and groups who attended the workshop. ~ The opinions expressed in this report, however, do not necessarily ~ The Russian background paper presents preliminary results of studies conducted by the Russian committee members and invited experts, and reflects a consensus of the Russian team members.
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The United States and Russia possess what are by far the worId's largest nuclear arsenals, and they recognize the need to ensure their own national security and to maintain international stability through their bilateral cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation. Several workshop participants noted that this entails maintaining and strengthening the international nuclear nonproliferation regime as a component of the international collective security system.
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conducted experiments, known as the Joint Verification Experiments,2 in 1988 to assess their technical ability to verify compliance with the Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests, also known as the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT)
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Programs can be impeded, often unwittingly, when their timing makes them a political issue in one or both countries. The Russian background paper suggests that bilateral cooperative programs and their impediments be considered in terms of how they affect and reduce international proliferation risk, minimizing the effects of domestic political trends of the day in the United States and Russia.
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The lack of clarity regarding what information is really needed and what information is truly too sensitive to share has resulted in conflicts that undermine cooperation and delays that impede progress. Visas: Several participants noted that obtaining entry visas for Russian nationals traveling to the United States has become more difficult as visa policies have tightened under the USA PATRIOT Act.3 A number of participants stated that the current visa system interferes with both the specie ic and general goals of security collaboration with Russia and that it should be possible to meet the need for enhanced visa screening without imposing undue burdens on beneficial international collaborations, especially those that support national and international security.
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Issues Related to Scientific and Technical Cooperation International Promotion of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy: Russian participants characterized the lack of U.S.-Russian cooperation on promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy as an impediment to cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation more broadly. Technical Feasibility of Proposals: Some U.S.-Russian agreements, such as the plutonium production reactor conversion agreement, have explicitly or implicitly required technical work that may not be scientifically feasible, as noted in the Russian background paper.
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Cold War attitudes may also manifest themselves more subtly within cooperative programs, taking the form of explicit or implicit disrespect or mistrust. Funding Issues The United States provides nearly all of the funding for bilateral U.S.-Russian cooperative programs on nuclear nonproliferation, although Russia has pledged two billion of its own dollars for work in Russia under the GS Global Partnership over the next 10 years.
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Government-to-Government Interactions: Many workshop participants pointed out that the support of high-level political leadership is important to the success of joint nuclear nonproliferation programs. Russian participants suggested that a cooperative program has a better chance of success if its major goals, subject scope, organization, and management issues are discussed and established in intergovernmental agreements, which enjoy high legal and political status in the two governments.
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In particular, expanded and more balanced exchanges between the students of military and civil universities and colleges, groups of of dicers and scientists could contribute to the effectiveness of interactions and cooperation in solving nuclear nonproliferation issues. International Development of Proliferation-Resistant Nuclear Energy Technologies Most of the Russian participants emphasized heavily the potential role of cooperation on commercial nuclear energy in the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.
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Participants noted that some have called for the appointment, in each government, of a single official who has direct links to the president and is responsible for facilitating interagency coordination of all cooperative nuclear nonproliferation activities. Mechanisms for Disseminating the Benefits of Experience Workshop participants suggested that a multi-program effort such as MPC&A will be most effective when the people involved in specific programs are aware of the situation in other programs and how their work relates to the overall effort.
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