The Big Five: Arms Control Decision-Making in the Soviet Union

ALEKSANDR' G. SAVEL'YEV is vice president of the independent Institute for National Security and Strategic Studies in Moscow. Savel'yev participated in the Soviet-American Nuclear and Space Talks in Geneva as an advisor to the Soviet delegation and as a representative of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He is the author of a number of scholarly works on strategic and security issues and a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.

NIKOLAY N. DETINOV, during the period from the end of the 1960s until the early 1990s, was among a handful of individuals actively involved in crafting the Soviet position for arms control negotiations. He was one of a small group which evolved into the Big Five. He oversaw the creation of its decision-making mechanisms and participated in its day-to-day operations. He participated in the Vladivostok Summit between Brezhnev and Ford (1974), the Helsinki Conference (1976) and the Soviet American Nuclear and Space Talks (START, INF, and Defense and Space, 1985-1991). General Detinov is presently a senior analyst in a scientific center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a participant in the Russian-American joint Global Protection Program.