News

And thanks, as ever, to our subscribers and contributors.

The bilateral consultative commission (BCC), the mechanism for implementation of the last remaining arms control agreement between the world’s two largest nuclear powers will meet “in the near future.”

The next edition of the morning newsletter will appear Tuesday, July 5th.

Please join a webinar cohosted by the Quincy Institute, The Intercept and The Nation for a discussion with Jeff Daniels, who made a documentary on the making of “The Day After” and its impact; Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of The Nation; and nuclear weapons expert Professor Sharon K. Weiner to explore the history and the legacy of the film and its lessons for today.

The discussion will take place on Tuesday, June 14 from 5-6 pm ET.

Ukraine’s forces are performing better than expected. They have seemingly humbled the once mighty Russian bear. As such, there is a new temptation to press the advantage and reassess long-frozen conflicts all along Russia’s periphery. With the Kremlin on the backfoot, this attraction is wholly understandable.

Join us at Noon EST May 19 for an expert panel featuring ACURA’s Anatol Lieven, Marlene Laruelle, and Pietro Shakarian to discuss what the war means for Russia at home: Will the Putin regime take an increasingly hardline against dissent? What can we expect from the political fallout from the invasion to look like? Discussion will be moderated by ACURA’s Katrina vanden Heuvel and James W. Carden. Link here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83915971954?pwd=dm5RYU9McXlheU5oemFnUENaMmVqdz09

Women of the World Call for Peace Now featuring Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire; Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez; and Dr. Paula Garb Tuesday, May 10th 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Pacific Time via Zoom. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__jd9s-g7SKqmyZo2o41jiQ

EVENT:  John Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, will join ACURA Board Members, Dr. Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University), Ambassador Jack Matlock,  Dr. Nicolai Petro (University of Rhode Island) on how realism predicted the current crisis and the aspect of tragedy in great power politics. Ambassador Matlock will also discuss how widespread misunderstandings about the nature of the events at the end of the Cold War has led to the current crisis between Russia and the West.

The discussion will be moderated by ACURA’s president Katrina vanden Heuvel and Board member James W. Carden.

DATE: April 7, 2022 NOON-1:30 EST

LINK:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83286849650?pwd=SG5sbUhJTk5ycUFTV3F5L29od1BLZz09

ACURA will host an online panel discussion on Russia, Ukraine and The Tragedy of Great Power Politics featuring University of Chicago scholar John J. Mearsheimer and ACURA’s Board Members Professor Marlene Laruelle, Ambassador Jack Matlock, Professor Nicolai Petro. It will be moderated by Katrina vanden Heuvel and James W. Carden, April 7 at Noon. Zoom link and more details to follow shortly…

As destructive as the Ukraine war is, Russia is causing less damage and killing fewer civilians than it could, U.S. intelligence experts say.

TONIGHT at 7pm EST. The Russian invasion of Ukraine heightens the terrifying prospect of nuclear war. Three experts on nuclear weapons and Russia will discuss the dangerous steps the U.S. and Russia are taking on the ladder of escalation. Russia is on nuclear alert.

During the Cold War, Ted Postol was a principal advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations on nuclear weapons systems, nuclear war planning, Russian and U.S. anti-missile defense countermeasures, strategic anti-submarine warfare and Navy and Air Force Strategic Nuclear missile systems. Postol will elaborate on his discovery of the inferiority of Russia’s early warning systems cited in the Committee’s first Ukraine salon, viewed over 750,000 times, and how this could trigger what Dr. Strangelove referred to as the “Doomsday Machine.”

Cynthia Lazaroff is the founder of Women Transforming Our Nuclear Legacy and NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth. An award-winning documentary filmmaker and author of Dawn of a New Armageddon, Cynthia is an activist dedicated to a world without nuclear weapons and serves on the boards of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord.

Joe Cirincione is a Senior Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/7812458066

Ukraine and Russia have made significant progress on a tentative 15-point peace plan including a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal if Kyiv declares neutrality and accepts limits on its armed forces, according to three people involved in the talks.

The proposed deal, which Ukrainian and Russian negotiators discussed in full for the first time on Monday, would involve Kyiv renouncing its ambitions to join Nato and promising not to host foreign military bases or weaponry in exchange for protection from allies such as the US, UK and Turkey, the people said.

The American Committee for US-Russia Accord expresses its utter condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and asks for an immediate halt to military actions; the withdrawal of Russian troops; and the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

ACURA has worked for many years to improve mutual understanding between Russia and the United States and has invited the West to build a new security architecture that wouldn’t exclude Russia.

We believe Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine goes against Russia’s own real strategic interests.It puts at risk the peace built since 1945 on the European continent, and also harms the long-term future of Russia.

We stand with Ukraine, the people of Russia, and all those in the world who call for peace.

Signed,

Katrina vanden Heuvel, President of ACURA; publisher and editorial director of The Nation 

James W. Carden, former advisor to US Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission; Senior Consultant to ACURA

Bernadine Joselyn, founding director of Public Policy and Engagement for Blandin Foundation

Marlene Laruelle, Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University

Cynthia Lazaroff, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Women Transforming Our Nuclear Legacy

Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Jack F. Matlock, Jr., career US diplomat who served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987-1991

Krishen Mehta, former partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Global Justice Fellow, Yale University

John E. Pepper, former CEO of Proctor and Gamble

Nicolai N. Petro, professor of political science, University of Rhode Island

David C. Speedie, was Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on U.S. Global Engagement at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York from 2007 to 2017.

Last month, nearly 700 Scientists Call for No First Use, End of Sole Authority, Reduced Nuclear Arsenal as part of Nuclear Posture Review.

Senior U.S. and Russian officials launched special talks Monday aimed at defusing tensions over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine, part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week.

WASHINGTON, DC — This morning, a bipartisan coalition of organizations sent a letter to the Biden administration in support of their efforts to engage diplomatically with Russia. On Monday, Russian and U.S. officials will meet in Geneva for the first of three rounds of security talks set to take place next week.  [Read more…] about Ahead of US-Russia Talks, Coalition Urges Biden to Further Strengthen Diplomatic Efforts and Avert War

Gorbachev this week insisted Moscow and Washington were “together” in pulling the world out of confrontation and the nuclear race.

“No, the ‘winners’ decided to build a new empire. Hence the idea of NATO expansion,” Gorbachev added.

However, he welcomed forthcoming security talks between Moscow and Washington.

As a ‘thank you’ to our readers and subscribers, ACURA is providing a free download of His Way: Remembering Stephen Cohen (Его Путь: Вспоминая Стивена Коэна), a collection of letters, stories, and remembrances of ACURA founder and professor of Russian Studies at Princeton and NYU, Stephen F. Cohen. The compilation was edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel and the Russian writer and scholar Gennady Bordyugov and features letters and commentary from Mikhail Gorbachev, Senator Bill Bradley, Katrina vanden Heuvel and many more.

We will be posting intermittently between now and the New Year. A sincere thanks to all our ViewPoint contributors and ZoomCast guests and to our readers and supporters.

Stay tuned for a new look website soon. In the meantime, we wish you all the best in 2022.

On Dec.17, Russia released the text of a proposed treaty outlining its position on a number of regional security and arms control issues. The Committee is linking to the text for informational purposes, not as an endorsement.