The Legacy of Reykjavik and the Future of U.S.–Russia Nuclear Relations

On 11-12 October 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, hoping to achieve a groundbreaking agreement on controlling the world’s most dangerous weapons. While the summit yielded no agreement, it set in motion arms control negotiations tracks, held up the promise of nuclear disarmament, and contributed to the transformation of relations between two Cold War ach-adversaries. Forty years on, what lessons does Reykjavik hold for arms control, disarmament, and great power relations?

To discuss the legacy of Reykjavik, Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) is honored to welcome Pavel Palazhchenko, former interpreter of Mikhail Gorbachev and an ambassador of the Gorbachev Foundation, David Holloway, Professor Emeritus of Stanford University and author of the International History of Nuclear Weapons, Matthew Bunn, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, and Carol Saivetz, Senior Fellow at MIT Security Studies Program, with Mariana Budjeryn, MTA associate and a senior researcher at MIT as moderator.