Economic Diversification in the Closed Nuclear Cities of Russia

Russia asked the U.S. to share its experience in downsizing its nuclear weapons complex so that Russia could apply the lessons learned in a Russian context. To implement this effort, the U.S. and Russia developed the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI). The program is taking steps to learn from its early mistakes and revise its strategy to assure future success. As the new G-8 Global Partnership explores how to invest in the former Soviet States to reduce the threat of the spread of weapons of mass destruction, it is timely to review what we have learned from the first five years of the Nuclear Cities Initiative. This paper discusses these lessons learned and describes the new program strategy.