ABSTRACT
Soviet collapse will actually tend to reinforce the pattern of nuclear collaboration between the United States (US) and those who maintain control over nuclear weapons on post-Soviet territory. The additional impulse given nuclear arms control in September 1991 by US and Soviet agreement unilaterally to eliminate all tactical nuclear weapons, stand down strategic nuclear bombers from alert status, and aim for further early reductions in strategic nuclear weapons opens up even broader prospects for denuclearizing the US-Soviet relationship. The eclipse of Mikhail Gorbachev implies that the West will have to shed itself of its past preoccupation with the Soviet leader if it is to think creatively about its future ties with the Soviet successor states. The dismantling of the Soviet military infrastructure in Eastern Europe, and the collapse of the Communist Party’s authority within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics itself, have removed even the theoretical possibility, regardless of intentions, of any early aggression against Europe.
