Center Scholars Offer Advice on Future of U.S.-Russia Relations

Belfer Center Director Graham Allison, with members of the Bipartisan Commission on U.S. Policy towards Russia, met in March with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and high-level officials in the Obama administration to discuss the future of U.S.-Russia relations.

Members of the Commission, which was established by Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C., discussed their recently released report, "The Right Direction for U.S. Policy toward Russia."

Principal findings

• In recent years, U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated to their worst point since the end of the Cold War.
• An American commitment to improving U.S.-Russian relations is neither a reward to be offered for good international behavior by Moscow nor an endorsement of the Russian government's domestic conduct.
• Improving U.S.-Russian relations is an acknowledgement of the importance of Russian cooperation in achieving essential American goals such as preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, dismantling al Qaeda, stabilizing Afghanistan, and guaranteeing security and prosperity in Europe.

Principal recommendations

• Seek to make Russia an American partner in dealing with Iran.
• Work jointly to strengthen the international nonproliferation regime.
• Take a new look at missile defense deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic and making a genuine effort to develop a cooperative approach to the shared threat from Iranian missiles.
• Accept that neither Ukraine nor Georgia is ready for NATO membership and working closely with U.S. allies to develop options other than NATO membership to demonstrate a commitment to their sovereignty.
• Launch a serious dialogue on arms control, including extending the START I Treaty as well as further reduction of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons.

"Arms control is a beginning, not the end, of an agenda for addressing 21^st century nuclear threats," Allison and former Senator Chuck Hagel, who cochaired the Commission with former Senator Gary Hart, wrote. "For the larger agenda, Obama and Medvedev can build on principles and specific goals affirmed by their predecessors: Bush and Putin. These include agreements on: accelerating existing programs to improve security at nuclear facilities in Russia and beyond; acting jointly to prevent nuclear terrorism; reducing nuclear material inventories and eliminating highly enriched uranium fuel from third countries; and working with the International Atomic Energy Agency to assure that all nations can enjoy the benefits of civilian nuclear energy without enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel."

Following the report release, Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama met and vowed to "move beyond Cold War mentalities" and address the threat of nuclear weapons.

"As leaders of the two largest nuclear weapons states, we agreed to work together to fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world," Medvedev and Obama said in a joint-statement. "We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world, while recognizing that this long-term goal will require a new emphasis on arms control and conflict resolution measures, and their full implementation by all concerned nations."

They emphasized the need to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which expires in December 2009, with a "new, comprehensive, legally binding agreement on reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms." Medvedev and Obama will receive reports on the progress of negotiations on this by July 2009.

"President Obama and Russian President Medvedev have taken important steps to put their efforts to control nuclear weapons back on track, telling their negotiators to speed up efforts to negotiate a new nuclear reductions pact, continuing and expanding efforts to secure nuclear stockpiles and prevent proliferation, and committing both countries to the long-term objective of a world free of nuclear weapons," said Matthew Bunn, associate professor for public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and co-principal investigator of the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom. "This is an excellent first step both in 'resetting' U.S.-Russian relations and in addressing the serious nuclear dangers the world still faces."