Today, the United States and Russia continue to work towards the “reset” of relations promised by President Obama and President Medvedev.  EWI has been building strategic trust between Russia and the U.S,--and, more broadly, between Russia and the West—for a long time. It engages policy makers, business leaders and experts to achieve breakthroughs in critical areas. In 2009, for instance, EWI brought together top Russian and American scientists for the first-ever Joint Threat Assessment, which focused on Iran’s nuclear and missile potential. Below, a look at some of our current activities:

Eminent Persons Group

Last year, EWI launched the Eminent Persons Group for Euro-Atlantic Security, which includes eight high-ranking former political and military figures from OSCE countries.  The aim is to create new security solutions for a post-Cold War Europe, such as Russia-NATO cooperative ballistic missile defense and joint  strategies for dealing with “heartland Asia.”

Cybersecurity

EWI is working to promote U.S.-Russia cooperation on cybersecurity as a first step towards broader multilateral cooperation.  We recently brought together two U.S.-Russia working groups on cyber threats.  The first, in cooperation with Moscow State University, focused on defining key disputed cybersecurity terms to lay the groundwork for future agreements, and the second explored how to extend the funding principles of the Geneva and Hague Conventions to cyber conflicts.
In cooperation with the Institute for Information Security Studies of Moscow State University and a team of U.S. independent experts, EWI took a significant step forward in reaching a common understanding between Russian and American expert communities on basic cybersecurity terms, publishing the joint report “Critical Terminology Foundations.” The report was presented at the 5th International Forum “Cooperation between Government, Civil Society and Business in the Field of Information Security and Combating Terrorism” in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, at the ITU-UN World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, and at EWI’s Second Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit in London in June 2011. Adviser to Russia’s Security Council Vladislav Sherstyuk and the ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré praised the unique character of the EWI-MSU effort, calling for similar cooperation on the multilateral level.

EWI’s joint US-Russia expert group report Working Towards Rules for Governing Cyber Conflict: Rendering the Geneva and Hague Conventions in Cyberspace was presented at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in February 2011, opening a new window of opportunity in the international policy debate on critical cyber infrastructure protection. MSC Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger lauded the “excellent cooperation” with EWI, adding:  “It led to our concluding that MSC will continue covering cyber subject matter at each conference starting next year."

Ballistic Missile Defense

 Dmitry Rogozin, President Medvedev’s Special Envoy for talks with NATO on ballistic missile defense, emphasized that EWI has been playing a leading role in driving an international public awareness campaign about ballistic missile defense issues, and he called for EWI to extend its important contribution in this capacity in the U.S., Europe and globally.

EWI also joined efforts with the Russian Committee of Scientists for Global Security and Arms Control at a major international conference ASAN Plenum 2011: Our Nuclear Future in Seoul. The goal: to promote cooperative solutions on strategic ballistic missile defense issues, which are critical to making  progress towards a nuclear weapon-free world. In a panel discussion on New START, three leading U.S. experts, all of whom advise the U.S. government on strategic arms control negotiations with Russia, declared the need to take into account Russia’s military leadership concerns about the U.S. Adapted Phased Approach’s future impact on strategic deterrence balance. Both U.S. and Russian experts expressed their willingness  to develop cooperative practices in the field, with the ultimate goal of overcoming mutual mistrust and relevant Mutual Assured Destruction doctrines.

Economic Modernization

EWI is leading an effort to support Russia’s modernization, building trust through international dialogue about economic policies, technology and science.  We held two seminars in cooperation with the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and the Leo Gumilev Center in Moscow on the challenges posed by ethnic and religious radicalism for modernization in Russia and other CIS countries. A series of high-level expert retreats will be launched by EWI in Fall 2011 addressing key issues of President Medvedev’s initiative on developing an International Financial Center in Moscow.

Joint U.S.-Russia Working Group on Afghan Narcotrafficking

Funded by the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, this two-year project brings together technical and policy experts from Russia and the United States to fight Afghan heroin trafficking, which has devastating costs for both Russia and the U.S. The group is working towards a joint policy assessment, which we see as a way not only to generate concrete policy solutions to decrease Afghan drug production, but also as a unique way to build trust between the United States and Russia.