Challenges to Deep Nuclear Cuts

The “Challenges to Deep Nuclear Cuts” project is slated for three years and has been operational since April 1, 2013. The project is financed by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Science and Research Authority of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and out of the IFSH’s own resources. Project partners are the independent Arms Control Association think tank and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. Head and coordinator of the project is Götz Neuneck.

Deep Cuts is a research and consultancy project. The aim of the project is to address the obstacles to further US-Russian nuclear and conventional disarmament and to make concrete recommendations on how to overcome those obstacles. To achieve this, a trilateral German-Russian-American expert commission – the Deep Cuts Commission – was formed. This track-1.5 commission consists of 21 high-ranking researchers, think tank members and former officials from the three countries. Members of the Commission include former Director of SIPRI, Walther Stützle, the Director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative of the Brookings Institution, former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, and the Director of the Institute for US and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergey Rogov.

By means of regular meetings of the Commission, continuous publication of reports, working papers, and issues briefs, as well as through interviews and op-eds in international media, the Commission strives to engage with interested members of the public, and particularly with state officials and experts, to raise awareness of the aim of reducing nuclear and conventional weapons.

RePorts

• First Report of the Deep Cuts Commission, Preparing for Deep Cuts: Options for Enhancing Euro-Atlantic and International Security
• Second Report of the Deep Cuts Commission, Strengthening Stability in Turbulent Times
• Third Report of the Deep Cuts Commission, Back from the Brink: Toward Restraint and Dialogue between Russia and the West

Working Papers

• Wolfgang Richter, Sub-Regional Arms Control for the Baltics: What Is Desirable? What Is Feasible?
• Adam Mount, Anticipatory Arms Control
• Alexey Arbatov, The ‚P5‘ Process: Prospects for Enhancement
• Edward M. Ifft, Verification Lessons Learnt from Strategic Arms Reductions
• Ivan Oelrich, U.S. Nuclear Force Structure and Deep Reductions
• Shea, Thomas E. and Laura Rockwood, Nuclear Disamament: The Legacy of the Trilateral Initiative
• Tom Sauer, The NPT and the Humanitarian Initiative: Towards and Beyond the 2015 NPT Review Conference
• Dennis M. Gormley, The Offense/Defense Problem: How Missile Defense and Conventional Precision-Guided Weapons Can Complicate Further Deep Cuts in Nuclear Weapons

Issue Briefs

• Victor Mizin, The Prospects of the West-Russia Security Dialogue: Wishful Thinking or New Hope?
• Vincent C. Fournier und Ulrich Kühn, Russia’s Nuclear Posture: Modernization and the State of Arms Control
• Meier, Oliver; Thielmann, Greg and Andrei Zagorski, Formal Dialogue on Compliance Can Still Save the INF Treaty
• Roth, Nickolas; U.S.-Russian Nuclear Security Cooperation
• Gregory G. Govan, Conventional Arms Control in Europe: Some Thoughts about an Uncertain Future
• Andrew Futter, War Games Redux

Interviews and Op Eds