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Collaborative Education and Cooperative SecuritySummary: The Collaborative Education and Cooperative Security Project is a partnership between CISSM and the School for International Security and World Politics at the Institute of USA and Canada Studies in Moscow (ISKRAN). Through grants from the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this project is bringing together American and Russian security experts to develop a joint curriculum and interactive teaching techniques that can be used to educate the new generation about enduring problems posed by nuclear policies and emerging security problems associated with globalization. Description: Reducing, and ultimately eliminating the dangers posed by weapons of mass destruction requires a new strategic partnership based on advanced methods of cooperative security. The past decade has shown that fundamentally new approaches to security problems will not automatically emerge in response to changed political and technical circumstances, nor will they necessarily evolve out of incremental adaptations to current practice. The most direct way to foster new thinking about nuclear issues, particularly among the upcoming generation of security experts that lacks direct experience with the formative Cold War period, is to reconceptualize both what and how students are taught about nuclear weapons. Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia have neither the deep ideological disagreements nor the massive conventional force deployments that once justified huge nuclear arsenals on high alert. Nevertheless, they plan to retain many thousands of nuclear weapons continuously prepared for a massive assault within minutes. The destructive capacity of these forces poses the greatest physical threat to both societies and the rest of the world, yet there has been no serious attempt to terminate mass deterrent operations. Although the likelihood of large-scale nuclear aggression is now dwarfed by the dangers of inadvertent launch, unauthorized access, or accidental detonation, operational practices still emphasize deterrence over forms of reassurance needed to avoid misperceptions and ensure safe management of residual nuclear arsenals. Problems posed by Russian weakness are matched by risks that arise from American strength. The United States is exploring the development of new types of nuclear weapons for missions other than traditional deterrence, at the same time that it is rejecting important elements of the legal framework that lent stability and predictability to nuclear relationships during the Cold War. Military, economic, and political power are so heavily concentrated in the U.S. alliance system that outsiders will be tempted to pursue asymmetrical deterrence strategies unless the United States provides credible reassurance that it will exercise appropriate restraint - a challenge given concerns abroad about U.S. unilateralism. Since the dominant issues of operational safety involve interactions between the American and Russian military forces, and since decisive improvements would require direct and reasonably intimate collaboration, it makes sense to develop the new curriculum jointly for simultaneous use in Russia and the United States. Topics for the curriculum will include:
The use of video-conferencing, and other interactive technology will let Russian and American participants hear first-hand how security experts and students in each country view such issues and evaluate policy options. Week and semester-long exchange visits will provide Russian and American students with opportunities to work together on solutions to pressing security problems. Conference Reports, Presentations and Other Documents Anja Kuznetsova, Russian Visit 2008, (Report, April 2008) Anja Kuznetsova, Russian Visit 2007, (Report, April 2007) |
Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland