In October 1986 in Reykjavik, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons-a historic agreement that ultimately led to the end of the cold war. Since that time, the nature of the nuclear threat in the world has changed, but the twenty-year-old lessons of Reykjavik may well help us achieve the goal of a modern world free of nuclear weapons.
Drawn from presentations at the Hoover Institution's conference on the twentieth anniversary of the Reykjavik summit, this collection of essays examines the legacy of that meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The contributors discuss what the lessons of Reykjavik can mean for today's nuclear arms control efforts, covering topics ranging from an explanation of President Reagan's role in creating trust at Reykjavik to the importance of preserving a missile defense system today to a discussion of a key lesson learned: the importance of negotiating with enemies.
Along with these insightful essays, the book includes the actual, previously secret classified transcript of the discussions between Reagan and Gorbachev. 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 for achieving that goal.