Deborah Yarsike Ball

Russian Scientists and Rogue States: Does Western Assistance Reduce the Proliferation Threat?

Soviet Union in 1991 engendered widespread concern that Russian nuclear weapons and material could end up in the hands of proliferants or terrorists. The ensuing decline in border security and the diminution of the role and power of the formerly ubiquitous security services signiacantly reduced the ability of Russia to safeguard these weapons and material. Another threat, the focus of this article, took a human form: Russian scientists with knowledge about nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons suddenly had greater leeway to visit or emigrate to any country of their choice, including so-called rogue nations seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction (WMD).1 And because of the greater ease with which Russian scientists could interact with the outside world, they could even sell their knowledge while remaining at home. Russia inherited the largest WMD complex in the world, with little government support for sustaining it at anywhere near Cold War levels. As a result, Russian science fell into a protracted crisis: salaries plummeted, funding for research dropped sharply, and the number of students pursuing careers in science dwindled. These developments gave Russian scientists both greater incentives and greater opportunities to sell their knowledge to governments or terrorist organizations that harbor hostile intentions toward the United States and other Western democracies. In response, the United States and other Western governments created a Russian Scientists and Rogue States

The State of Russian Science: Focus Groups with Nuclear Physicists

Two specialists on Russian society and politics examine the condition of Russian science and scientists based on secondary literature, official statistics, and focus groups conducted with 19 Russian nuclear physicists in October 2001. The article discusses the implications of their findings for international security and for Russias economic and political trajectories.

Ethnic Conflict, Unit Performance, and the Soviet Armed Forces

The Commonwealth of Independent States is struggling to create a central military command at the same time that individual members of the Commonwealth are forging their own national armies. Although the former task appears to be more daunting, the difficulties in creating stable, functional territorial armies should not be underestimated. Difficulties will arise because the states themselves are multinational in makeup and will have to contend with ethnic problems among their servicemen. Utilizing data from a survey of former Soviet citizens, the author tested two competing hypotheses about the impact of the Soviet military on ethnic relations in the now defunct Soviet empire in order to increase understanding of some of the difficulties that the newly independent states will confront as they establish their own militaries. The impact of ethnic tensions on military performance was also examined. The results provide no basis for claims that the Soviet military either exacerbated or mitigated ethnic conflict. However, ethnic relations had a profound impact on military performance. This article discusses the implications of these findings for the successor states to the Soviet Union.