U.S., Russia must unite to reduce nuclear dangers

"As the presidential nominees' debate on national security issues approaches, there is one issue on which both sides agree - preventing nuclear terrorism and proliferation must be a top priority," writes Martin Malin of the Ploughshares-funded Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University. But, he says, both are also "using Russia as a rhetorical punching bag to look tough on foreign policy. They can't have it both ways. The U.S. need not condone recent Russian actions in Georgia. But hostile rhetoric does nothing to improve U.S. national security and could be counterproductive in solving three of our most urgent problems."