Defense

Space, Nuclear Weapons, and U.S.-Russia Relations After the Cold War

Carnegie Endowment
Carnegie Endowment•May 28, 2026

Why It Matters

Understanding the past U.S.-Russia cooperation reveals practical tools—space and nuclear collaboration—that can mitigate current geopolitical risks and reinforce global security.

Key Takeaways

  • •Post‑Cold War US‑Russia cooperation enabled the International Space Station.
  • •Joint threat‑reduction programs prevented nuclear material proliferation in former Soviet states.
  • •Bipartisan US policy linked NATO enlargement with diplomatic engagement of Russia.
  • •Cooperation with Russia kept Ukraine nuclear‑free, averting early conflict.
  • •Future security hinges on reviving space and nuclear collaboration frameworks.

Summary

The event centered on Rose Gottemoeller’s new book, *Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons and U.S.-Russia Relations After the Cold War*, and a discussion with NPR journalist Michelle Kellerman. Gottemoeller, a former U.S. under‑secretary for arms control and NATO deputy secretary‑general, reflects on the post‑Cold War era when the United States and Russia forged unprecedented scientific and security partnerships despite lingering geopolitical rivalries.

Key insights include the joint development of the International Space Station, which was possible only because the U.S. and Russia aligned on costly space policy decisions. Parallel to this, cooperative threat‑reduction initiatives—originating under George H.W. Bush and continued by Bill Clinton—secured nuclear materials across the newly independent states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, preventing proliferation and averting early conflicts. The book also highlights a rare bipartisan consensus that coupled NATO enlargement with sustained diplomatic engagement, exemplified by the Budapest Memorandum’s removal of nuclear weapons from Ukraine.

Gottemoeller emphasizes that “Clinton was convinced a stable, democratic Russia was essential for Eurasian security,” and notes that Russian‑Ukrainian cooperation in the 1990s, including a 1997 border reaffirmation, demonstrated mutual willingness to collaborate. She recounts personal involvement in negotiating the Budapest deal, stressing that Ukrainian monitoring of warhead dismantlement built trust and avoided a premature Russia‑Ukraine clash.

The discussion underscores that today’s strained U.S.-Russia relationship could benefit from reviving the cooperative frameworks that once underpinned space exploration and nuclear security. Renewed scientific collaboration and joint threat‑reduction mechanisms may offer pragmatic pathways to de‑escalate tensions, protect non‑proliferation gains, and lay groundwork for a more stable European security architecture.

Original Description

In Russia’s official narratives, the United States emerged from the Cold War determined to expand NATO to Russia’s borders, posing an existential threat to the Russian state. Historical records prove otherwise. Beginning with George H.W. Bush, successive American presidents, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, were convinced that cooperation with Russia was essential to international security and enacted policies to strengthen the U.S.-Russia relationship. For nearly two decades, this strategy produced meaningful cooperation as Russia and the United States cooperated in outer space, counterterrorism, and nuclear energy. This progress unraveled amid Vladimir Putin’s political evolution and the responses it provoked in Washington.
While today is starkly different from the 1990s, what lessons can be learned from this period of cooperation? Once there is a fair peace in Ukraine and Russia atones for the damage it has done, will it be worth resuming cooperation?
Join Rose Gottemoeller, a nonresident fellow in Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy Program and former deputy secretary general of NATO, for a conversation with Andrew S. Weiss, the James Family Chair and vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, to explore how Gottemoeller tackles these questions in her new book Security Through Cooperation.
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