Professor James Cameron, from the Center for International Relations of FGV’s School of Social Sciences (CPDOC), participated in a debate on ‘The Demise of America’s First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation’. The event took place February 5 at the main office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington, D.C.

Building upon some of the arguments in his book ‘The Double Game’, published in November 2017 by Oxford University Press, Cameron answered the following question: Why did the United States go from a position of nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union, in the early 1960s, to a stance of nuclear parity, in conditions of mutually assured destruction, in 1972? To answer this question, the professor reviewed conversations between the Presidents in Office during this period (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) and their trusted advisors. The recently declassified records reveal how these three presidents sought to reconcile their personal convictions about the nuclear arms race with public demands. Cameron also discussed the use of his findings to understand the current nuclear strategy of the United States.

Supported by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the event was attended by James G. Hershberg, a professor from the Elliott School of George Washington University and Cold War expert, and was moderated by Togzhan Kassenova, fellow researcher from the Nuclear Policy Program of Carnegie Endowment. The event was also attended by experts in nuclear policy and the Cold War, besides other scholars, students, and policymakers from the United States.