Cooperation Study Group

Cooperation Moments and the Architecture of Enduring Cooperation

Lessons from Megatons to Megawatts for Contemporary Global Challenges

Cooperation Study Group / CNDSI / AC4 – Initial Framing (Draft)

The Megatons to Megawatts (M2M) program—the U.S.–Russia HEU Purchase Agreement (1993–2013)—is widely recognized as one of the most consequential nuclear-security achievements of the post–Cold War era. It eliminated the equivalent of roughly 20,000 nuclear weapons, provided approximately 10% of U.S. electricity for two decades, and persisted through major geopolitical shocks, domestic political opposition, bureaucratic dysfunction, and market volatility.

Yet despite its importance, M2M remains under-theorized as a case of cooperation.

Existing accounts—most notably Jeffrey Hughes’ comprehensive historical reconstruction (here) —offer a rich narrative of actors, negotiations, crises, and institutional improvisation. What remains less developed is an analytical framework that explains how cooperation emerged, endured, adapted, and ultimately stabilized in a domain characterized by extreme risk, deep mistrust, and asymmetric power.

The CNDSI-Cooperation Study Group proposes “cooperation moments” as a central analytical lens for understanding M2M and for extracting lessons relevant to today’s challenges—arms-control breakdown, nuclear-energy transitions, plutonium disposition, climate governance, and broader questions of cooperative security. It includes Douglas Fry, Borislava Manojlovic, Kentaro Shintaku, Kenta Okazaki, Beltina Gjeloshi, and Andrea Bartoli.