On February 6, 2018, the US-Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted a Russian-American conference on reducing the nuclear threat. On the American side, the staff of the program “Perry Project” and “NTI-AI” took part in it. The American delegation was headed by William Perry, former US Secretary of Defense under President W. Clinton. On the Russian side, the seminar was attended by the staff of the Institute, as well as the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, AA. Kokoshin, former First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation under the President BN. Yeltsin and Corresponding Member of the RAS V.M. Davydov, scientific director of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The seminar was conducted by the scientific leader of ISCRAN, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.M. Rogov.

In their speeches, the rapporteurs agreed that we are witnessing the consolidation of the new Cold War, which differs in a number of aspects from the previous one, but in fact is a confrontational model of relations between Russia and the United States. In connection with the lack of positive figures in relation to Russia, key figures in the administration of Donald Trump, as well as among the officials of the second echelon, the political dialogue between our countries has practically come to nothing, which has the most negative impact on the prospects for normalization of Russian-American relations, armaments.
In his speech, William Perry spoke of an increase in the nuclear threat. Argumenting his assertion, he noted that, on the one hand, modern confrontation is characterized by a new arms race, not quantitative, as it was before, but qualitative and technological, and on the other – the absence of fear of a nuclear apocalypse. The latter is confirmed by the provisions of the new US nuclear doctrine, which postulates the return of the offensive status of nuclear weapons. Scientists atomic scientists also confirm this state of affairs: the hours of the ‘judgment day’ on January 25, 2018 were translated for 2 minutes before the apocalypse for the first time since 1953.
William Perry noted that, as a witness to the devastating consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, he continues to work on the main task he has set for himself – to reduce the nuclear threat. During the conference, his book “My Way on the Edge of the Nuclear Abyss” was presented, in which he describes the efforts he made to achieve this goal during his work in the scientific and technical laboratory, at the Pentagon, at the university, in the framework of unofficial diplomacy. successes and failures and shares his thoughts on the need for further steps towards a nuclear-free world.
In addition, an animated film about a hypothetical conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan, created under the auspices of the Perry Project, was demonstrated, and a training program on the threat of nuclear terrorism was announced.
At the end of the conference, a discussion took place during which William Perry stressed that in the field of nuclear weapons control, Russia and the United States have many common interests and tasks, but in the near future one should expect only the extension of the new START treaty. CM. Rogov, answering the questions, presented his view on the negative role of military incidents involving Russian and NATO armed forces on the state of Russian-American relations and proposed putting this topic on the agenda of arms control negotiations at the level of the Defense Ministers of both countries as one of the important problems , which have a critical impact on the state of crisis stability.