Authors

Discussion

Russian civilian expertise on nuclear arms control evolved in the 1970s at selected institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, some academics working at these institutes gained systematic access to policymaking and actively contributed to arms control negotiations as part of official delegations. The Soviet state’s collapse initiated a process of increasing polarization and formation of distinct discursive groups within the Russian expert community that has continued to this day. This paper analyzes these discursive groups and the social positions of their members. It identifies two distinct epistemic communities, one concentrated mainly within the aforementioned institutes, the other associated with state- and ministry of defense affiliated think tanks and universities. The paper finds that the two communities diverge along the lines of principled and normative beliefs about US-Russian bilateral relations and Russian great power status rather than professional judgments about the merits of arms control. Their positions on arms control policies represent different approaches to the management of ontological (in)security.