BUILDING A GENUINE U.S.-RUSSIAN PARTNERSHIP FOR NUCLEAR SECURITY

摘要

As Russia’s economy improves and its government becomes more assertive, a shift from a donorrecipientrnrelationship to a more genuine partnership is likely to be essential to the success of cooperativernefforts to improve nuclear security and accounting – particularly to achieving the working-level Russianrn“buy-in” to the new security and accounting approaches so crucial to long-term sustainability. Substantialrnevidence from other types of assistance indicates that assistance programs that directly involve the recipientsrnin all aspects of the conception, design, implementation, and evaluation of the effort have far higher successrnrates than those that do not. This paper describes specific modifications to U.S. and Russian policies thatrncould help shift programs to improve nuclear security and accounting from a donor-recipient relationship to arnmore genuine partnership. To achieve a genuine partnership, Russia will have to assign more of its ownrnresources to improving nuclear security, and change its recent practice of, in essence, not paying for anythingrnthat the United States might be convinced to pay for. The United States will have to have the flexibility tornmake all stages of the work truly joint efforts, with Russian experts playing key roles in all the stages justrnnoted. The paper will provide specific examples on both sides (such as the Russian decision to cease payingrnthe minor sums required to install U.S.-provided “quick fix” security upgrade equipment at nuclear warheadrnsites once discussions of U.S. funding for that effort began – despite incidents of terrorist reconnaissance atrnthose warhead sites, and the U.S. practice of having an evaluation team assessing each nuclear materialrnsecurity project that includes no Russian members and little Russian input). The paper will also outlinernpossibilities for the United States and Russia, following through on the Bratislava summit statement, to workrnin partnership to improve nuclear security in other countries around the world – an approach that would alsornbe likely to improve the political atmosphere for nuclear security cooperation within Russia.