Why did the United States move from a position of nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1960s to one of nuclear parity under conditions of mutual assured destruction in 1972? The story of this transition both sheds new light on the Cold War and offers new insights for today’s nuclear challenges.

Drawing on declassified conversations between three presidents and their most trusted advisers, James Cameron offers an original answer to this question in his new book The Double Game: The Demise of America’s First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon struggled to reconcile their personal convictions about the nuclear arms race with public demands. In doing so they engaged in a double game, hiding their true beliefs behind a façade of strategic language, while grappling in private with the complex realities of the nuclear age.

The Demise of America's First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitaiton

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a unique global network of policy research centers in Russia, China, Europe, the Middle East, India, and the United States. Our mission, dating back more than a century, is to advance the cause of peace through analysis and development of fresh policy ideas and direct engagement and collaboration with decisionmakers in government, business, and civil society.

Carnegie Moscow Center organized a panel discussion on the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Asian Geopolitics In Flux: Traditional and Non-Traditional Challenges for Russia and Japan

Carnegie's Tong Zhao, Fellow based at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, discusses the growth of China's nuclear ballistic missile submarine program and its implications for US-China strategic stability.

China's Ballistic Missile Submarines and Strategic Stability

Drawing on the history of conflict between India and Pakistan, in his new book Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments, Moeed Yusuf describes and evaluates how the process of third-party intervention affects deterrence strategies and prospects for peace, and applies lessons to other regional nuclear rivalries

Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments

Preventing Escalation in the Baltics: A NATO Playbook by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Preventing Escalation in the Baltics: A NATO Playbook

In his new book, "Navigation by Judgment: Why and When Top-Down Control of Foreign Aid Doesn’t Work," Dan Honig presents an empirically grounded argument for the value of implementation led by the judgment of field staff, particularly when tasks are difficult to measure and country environments are unpredictable. In this roundtable discussion, Honig will present his key findings and their implications for major aid organizations. Nilmini Rubin and Larry Garber, experienced development practitioners, will respond with comments and reflections.

The Demise of America's First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitaiton

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