The Cold War Museum Inc
The Cold War Museum Inc

The Cold War Legacy of Arms Control Monitoring and Verification

Mar

22
Mar 22, 2026

11:00 PM - 12:30 AM

Zoom

Retired CIA, NRO and arms control negotiator, John Lauder, will talk about his time in these agencies and how intelligence was vital to all aspects of arms control during the Cold War. The US in particular built eye-watering technical intelligence capabilities for monitoring Soviet, and later Russian, activities and compliance with agreements which were adapted for use on other national security issues. Important human sources during the Cold War also increased confidence in strategic stability and the verification process. A combination of negotiated measures, intelligence monitoring, and analytical insights broke tough challenges into manageable pieces. A synergistic monitoring strategy and transparency measures refined approaches, methodologies, and definitions that remain relevant to future agreements. Join us to learn how negotiations and agreements of the 70s, 80s, and 90s established international precedents, effective partnerships, and shared understandings that could provide the basis for new agreements to end the war in Ukraine or to manage great power competition in space.

Cold War Legacy of Arms Control Monitoring and Verification
$20
John A. Lauder is a Senior Fellow at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control and is a cofounder of the James A. Garfield Center for Public Leadership at Hiram College. He retired from the US government with over 33 years of managerial, analytical, and policy experience in the CIA, NRO, and as an arms control negotiator. His last three assignments in the government were as Deputy Director of National Support at the NRO, Director of CIA’s Nonproliferation Center, and Chief of the Intelligence Community’s Arms Control Intelligence Staff. He continues to be instrumental in shaping research and strategic planning in the public and private sectors, including as a member of academic, laboratory, and nonprofit advisory panels. He has helped lead influential studies to improve intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and to facilitate verification of international agreements.
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