This Track II initiative between Americans, Germans and Russians, provides recommendations on how the West and Russia can reduce military tensions. They warn that heightened tensions between great powers mean any misstep can balloon into a major conflict. The commission recommends the following: "discussions on mutual restraint measures; reviving dialogue on joint nuclear risk reduction; taking advantage of existing confidence and security-building measures, such as the Open Skies Treaty; supplementing diplomatic dialogues on the INF treaty by convening a special commission to address technical questions; addressing nuclear-armed cruise missile proliferation by bolstering Missile Technology Control Regime restrictions and exercising restraint in nuclear modernization."

Read the full article at the Brookings Institution.

Flickr image by the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency shared in the public domain.