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Reykjavik Revisited: Steps toward a nuclear free world

The Hoover Institution and NTI sponsored a "Reykjavik Revisited" conference in October 2007 to examine the practical steps required to address the nuclear threat and to move toward the goal established by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at their historic 1986 meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland: the elimination of nuclear weapons. The distinguished contributors include former officials of the past six U.S. administrations and senior scholars and scientific experts on nuclear issues.

Conference participants explored a range of critical topics, including how to secure nuclear stockpiles and stage reductions toward the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide; confront the challenges of verification and compliance; prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the spread of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing; and terminate reliance on the prompt launch of nuclear-armed missiles and on mutual-assured-destruction strategies. In addition, they explored key issues such as the need for diplomatic efforts where there are regional animosities, and the importance of creating a coalition of nations that will work toward transforming the vision of a world without nuclear weapons into a reality.

A Summary Report of the Conference, edited by George P. Shultz, Sidney D. Drell, and James E. Goodby.

Contributors include: Steven Andreasen, Bruce G. Blair, Matthew Bunn, Sidney D. Drell, Robert Einhorn, James E. Goodby, Rose Gottemoeller, David Holloway, Edward Ifft, Raymond Jeanloz, Raymond Juzaitis, Max M. Kampelman, Henry A. Kissinger, Jack F. Matlock Jr., John E. McLaughlin, Sam Nunn, William J. Perry, Henry S. Rowen, George P. Shultz, James Timbie.
Full-text PDF versions of each chapter can be accessed here.

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan sent a letter in support of the conference’s goal, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger prepared an address to be delivered to the conference participants and others.

Watch the video of the 2007 "Reykjavik Revisited" conference.

2006 Reykjavik Summit 20th Anniversary Conference

At their October 1986 meeting in Reykjavik, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons. That historic meeting ultimately helped lead to the end of the Cold War. "Since that time, the nature of the nuclear threat in the world has changed, but the 20-year-old lessons of Reykjavik may well help us achieve the goal of a modern world free of nuclear weapons," said former Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

Implications of the Reykjavik Summit on Its Twentieth Anniversary: Conference Report (Hoover Institution Press, 2007), edited by Sidney D. Drell and George P. Shultz, contains essays drawn from presentations at the 2006 Hoover Institution conference on the legacy of the Reykjavik meeting. The contributors examine a range of topics including the implications of the summit for current nuclear threat reduction efforts.

Along with these insightful essays, the book includes the declassified official transcript of the discussions between Reagan and Gorbachev at Reykjavik as well as official Soviet documents. The Soviet documents, now available in the Hoover Archives, provide insight into Soviet preparations for the summit, including key positions and an assessment of their research and development with respect to nuclear weapons relative to the United States. Taken as a whole, the contributions in this collection reassert the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and underscore the need for new, practical measures to achieve that goal.

A paper version of the report can be purchased from Hoover Press here.
Full-text PDF versions of each chapter can be accessed here.

Sidney D. Drell is a senior fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution and professor of theoretical physics (emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He coauthored The Gravest Danger: Nuclear Weapons with James Goodby. George P. Shultz, the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, served as U.S. secretary of state under Ronald Reagan.

Watch the video of the 2006 Reykjavik Summit 20th Anniversary Conference.