ABSTRACT
It is important not to overstate the similarities between the political environment during the Cold War and the current crisis in bilateral relations between Russia and the United States. In some ways, tensions between the two countries are higher now than they were before the disintegration of the USSR. This chapter begins by distilling a number of key lessons from the comparative case studies, identifies several near-term proliferation challenges that would benefit from enhanced US–Russia cooperation and suggests how knowledge from the comparative analyses might be practically applied today. It explores several opportunities for re-engagement that appear to be feasible, even in a very difficult political environment. Policymakers in the Soviet Union and the US exhibited considerable flexibility in accommodating one another’s positions when cooperation served their individual and shared objectives. The Soviet Union and the US recognised that as superpowers and alliance leaders, obtaining one another’s support for key non-proliferation objectives would greatly increase the prospects for their realisation.
