The EastWest Institute, in coordination with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, convened a seminar, Re-framing De-Alert, in Yverdon, Switzerland on June 21-23, 2009. The seminar brought together technical experts, policymakers, military professionals and scholars to determine ways to reduce the operational readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. It included representatives not only from the United States and Russia, but also from the non-nuclear-weapon states that sponsored the January 2009 U.N. General Assembly resolution to decrease the operational readiness of nuclear weapons systems. (126K PDF)

Among the questions participants considered were:

• What is the state of operational readiness of nuclear weapons systems in the U.S. and Russia?
• What are the shortcomings in current efforts to decrease this operational readiness and increase decision-making time?
• What have we learned from previous efforts to de-alert nuclear arsenals?
• What is the relationship between de-alert efforts and disarmament efforts? Are they complementary?
• What de-alert approaches would be acceptable to U.S. and Russia?
• How can the international community work together to implement these approaches?

The complete agenda of the seminar follows.

Session I: Russian Perspectives on De-Alerting Nuclear Weapons

• De-alerting: Decreasing the Operational Readiness of Strategic Nuclear Forces (224K PDF). By:
  • General (Ret.) Viktor Koltunov, Deputy Director, Institute for Strategic Stability of Rosatom
  • Eugene Miasnikov, Senior Research Scientist, Centre for Arms Control, Energy, and Environmental Studies, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
  • Leonid Ryabikhin, Executive Secretary, Committee of Scientists for Global Security and Arms Control; Senior Fellow, EastWest Institute
• Comments by Amy Woolf, John Steinbruner and Walter Slocombe (162K PDF)
• Comments by Harold Feiveson (142K PDF), Co-Director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University

Session II: U.S. Perspectives on De-Alerting Nuclear Weapons

• Presentations of U.S. Papers:
  • De-Alerting: Diagnoses, Prescriptions, and Side Effects (284K PDF). By Walter Slocombe, Caplin & Drysdale Attorneys; Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
  • Reframing De-Alert (162K PDF). John Steinbruner, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, University of Maryland; Chairman of the Board, Arms Control Association
  • Nuclear Force Posture and Alert Rates: Issues and Options (222K PDF). By Amy Woolf, Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy, Congressional Research Service
• Comments by Eugene Miasnikov (195K PDF), in coordination with General (Ret.) Viktor Esin and General (Ret.) Viktor Koltunov
• Comments by Sergey Rogov, Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Session III: Past Approaches to De-Alerting Nuclear Weapons

• Brief remarks to initiate the discussion by W. Pal Sidhu

Session IV: De-Alerting, Operational Readiness and Multilateralism: Perspectives of Non-Nuclear Weapons States

• Ambassador Don Mackay, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the United Nations, Geneva

Working Dinner:  The Future of the Nonproliferation Regime and New Opportunities for U.S.-Russia Cooperative Action

• Keynote address by Deputy State Secretary Pierre Helg, Ambassador, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland

Session V: Overcoming Obstacles and Operationalizing Approaches to De-Alert

• General (Ret.) Eugene Habiger (110K PDF), Distinguished Fellow and Policy Advisor, Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia; former Commander of United States Strategic Command
• General (Ret.) Viktor Esin (114K PDF), Science Fellow, Institute of U.S. and Canada, Russia Academy of Sciences; former Chief of Staff of Russian Federation Strategic Missile Force
• Grigory Chernyavsky (125K PDF), Director of the Earth Space Monitoring Scientific Center (Russian Space Agency); Correspondent Member, Russian Academy of Sciences

Session VI: Operational Readiness and Ongoing Disarmament Efforts

• Jeffrey Lewis, Director, Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, New America Foundation
• Timur Kadyshev (126K PDF), Senior Research Scientist, Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies