Reimagining Risk Reduction: Adapting Cold War Tools to Manage 21st Century Strategic Instability

The webinar will present the findings and recommendation of a report prepared by a group of authors led by VCDNP Senior Fellow Dr. Nikolai Sokov with support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and German Federal Foreign Office. The report analyzes the state of affairs in risk reduction and offers practical recommendations for their further development to better address new and emerging challenges to international security.

The authors conclude that the complex and reasonably comprehensive system of risk reduction measures, which was created during the Cold War, is in crisis. They recommend the creation of a risk reduction network connecting all key decision-making centers and advocate the building of a “risk reduction culture” – a stable pattern of cooperative communication to enhance transparency, address concerns, and prevent crises.

The full text of the paper can be found here: https://vcdnp.org/wp-content/uploads/...

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction by the moderator, VCDNP Executive Director Elena K. Sokova
04:18 Marina Wyss Ross, Deputy Head, International Security Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland
07:40 Katrin Shimizu, Deputy Head of Division, Nuclear Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, German Federal Foreign Office
11:37 Dr. Nikolai Sokov, Senior Fellow, VCDNP
22:22 Sahil Shah, Senior Policy Advisor, Institute for Security and Technology
30:39 David Santoro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Forum
39:58 Hon. Rose Gottemoeller, Lecturer and Research Fellow at Stanford University, former Deputy Secretary General of NATO and chief U.S. negotiator of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)
49:51 Q&A