Arms Control Physics: The New Soviet Connection

NOV 01, 1989

Informal contacts established between US and Soviet physicists during an unpromising period in relations between the superpowers have taken on new significance since Gorbachev’s emergence.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881210

Frank von Hippel

US and Soviet scientists have been holding quiet discussions on matters like missile defense since the first International Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs in 1957 (see PHYSICS TODAY, September, page 81). Sometimes these discussions have constituted an informal “backchannel” between the governments for consideration of possible arms control initiatives. Thus in conversations between US and Soviet scientists in 1964, US scientists argued that ABM systems would not be effective against a determined adversary and that their deployment would stimulate an offense‐defense arms race; they accordingly proposed a treaty to limit ABM systems. Two high‐level Soviet scientists, Lev Artsimovich (who was head of the Soviet fusion program) and Mikhail Millionshchikov (who was vice president for applied physics and mathematics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences), subsequently helped bring their government around to this position, thereby contributing to the achievement in 1972 of the ABM Treaty.

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References

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More about the Authors

Frank von Hippel. Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.