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8 Forums Across Oceans
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8 FORUMS ACROSS OCEANS Arms control was, really, a coalition of doves in both camps against hawks. But only when they were in touch with one another could their full effectiveness be felt. — . , Every Man Should Try Soviet think-tank staffers and scientists participated in several forums that provided an opportunity to meet and exchange views with American scholars, scientists , and public figures. There were a number of these, which have come to be called “transnational forums,” four of which will be discussed here—Pugwash, the Dartmouth Conference, the U.S. United Nations Association (UNA-USA), and the meetings of the American Friends (Quakers). The Soviets were regular participants in the Pugwash meetings, which as Arbatov notes, were particularly important in the s and s. Pugwash, writes Arbatov,“was our first course in Western thinking of security and disarmament.”1 Also useful, adds Arbatov, was the Dartmouth Conference, the U.S.-Soviet meetings begun by Norman Cousins and named after the site of the first conference: “The [Dartmouth] meetings were held even in the most difficult periods of Soviet-American relations, and they played a useful role. They seriously helped my institute, and me personally, to become familiar with various American points of view on extremely important questions of foreign, military, and economic policy , and they became valuable sources of our education in these areas.”2 A similar series of meetings of the U.S. and Soviet United Nations Associations presented opportunities for additional contacts with a wider circle of American participants. Such meetings were especially useful to Soviet officials who worked on arms control. As Arbatov writes: People who worked in the Defense Ministry and the military-industrial complex (as well as the majority of Foreign Ministry officials and even academic experts) were intellectually unprepared for a dialogue with the Americans and for serious talks going beyond the bounds of political declarations. At first they could not properly grasp American concepts and terminology concerning strategic and disarmament issues. . . . Due . Arbatov, The System, . . Ibid. to the [USA] institute’s pioneering efforts, a new type of expert was created —the civilian expert on strategic-military, political-strategic, and arms-control issues.3 Arbatov’s recognition that Soviet disarmament experts were unprepared for a dialogue with their American counterparts needs some explanation here. Not only were the Soviets unprepared for serious and substantive talks with Americans, but the two sides also spoke different languages with different vocabularies, and we are not speaking here about differences between English and Russian. U.S. armscontrol experts had developed a new vocabulary to describe the situations they faced in the nuclear age, and it was not until the Soviets had mastered that terminology and become familiar with its usage, that the two sides could hold serious talks. In this respect, the transnational forums discussed here, as well as many of the exchanges conducted by IREX with various Soviet think tanks, helped prepare the way for the U.S.-Soviet arms control agreements that followed, in which many of those same Soviet experts played key roles. If, as many claim, much of the U.S.-Soviet discord can be attributed to misread signals and misinterpretations of intent, the transnational forums discussed below played a major role in improving mutual understanding between the superpowers. Pugwash Pugwash is an international movement, started in , involving some of the most famous men of learning and aiming to ensure that mankind will not destroy itself. — , Scientists in the Quest for Peace The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Security, one of the earliest and longest-running forums involving citizens of the United States, the Soviet Union, and several other countries, brought together prominent scientists and public figures concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems. Meeting as individuals rather than as representatives of their governments or institutions, Pugwash participants exchanged views and explored alternative approaches to arms control and tension reduction with a candor, continuity, and flexibility seldom attained in East-West discussions and negotiations. Yet, because of the stature of the participants in their own countries—as science and arms control advisers to governments, key figures in science and academia, and former and future holders of high government . Ibid., . [52.205.218.160] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:21 GMT) office—-their insights from the discussions penetrated quickly to high levels of official policymaking.4 The unique value of Pugwash was in providing a forum for informal talks at which proposals for negotiations...