Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: The deteriorating US-Russia relationship

The deteriorating US-Russia relationship

On Monday, October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin withdrew his country from the US-Russia Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). The PDMA, first signed in 2000 and renewed in 2009, affirmed the intention of each country to dispose of stockpiles of plutonium that could be used to build nuclear warheads. President Putin’s decision to pull out of the PDMA is just the latest worrying development affecting an increasingly troubled relationship between Russia and the United States. Below, we’ve gathered some of the best writing the Bulletin has to offer on the subject. Are we now in Cold War 2.0? Can the US-Russia plutonium disposition agreement be saved? Pavel Podvig The way back to the US-Russia negotiating table Lawrence J. Korb Time for a different kind of US-Russian arms control Adam Mount From the digital journal: Interview with former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul John Mecklin Free access Putin: The one-man show the West doesn’t understand Fiona Hill Free access Barrels and Bullets: The geostrategic significance of Russia’s oil and gas exports Michael Bradshaw and Richard Connolly Free access US-Russia relations: The middle cannot hold Jeremy Shapiro and Samuel Charap Free access Would Russia’s undersea “doomsday drone” carry a cobalt bomb? Edward Moore Geist Blurring the line between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons: Increasing the risk of accidental nuclear war? Pavel Podvig Saving nuclear arms control Alexei Arbatov Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear forces, 2016 Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris Free access US nuclear forces, 2016 Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris Free access Other reading: Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement http://fissilematerials.org/library/PMDA2000.pdf Free access The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists engages science leaders, policy makers, and the interested public on topics of nuclear weapons and disarmament, the changing energy landscape, climate change, and emerging technologies. We do this through our award-winning journal, iconic Doomsday Clock, public access website, and regular set of convenings. With smart, vigorous prose, multimedia presentations, and information graphics, the Bulletin puts issues and events into context and provides fact-based debates and assessments. For more than 70 years, the Bulletin has bridged the technology divide between scientific research, foreign policy, and public engagement.