n two things occurred: first, when a soviet leader abandoned the Marxist - Leninist conception of the world...and second, when the west would come to recognise that fact and abandon its no longer relevant image of an ideologically committed permanent adversary and the derived foundation for its containment policy", (Garthoff, L. 1999, p 65). 78
             During the cold war the relationship was tense yet secure. "Fear of the consequences of nuclear war not only made it exceedingly improbable that either superpower would deliberately seek a military confrontation with the other; it made their leaders extremely reluctant to take any action that they considered would seriously raise the risk of war" Lebow, N. 1999, p83). 59
             One would be quick to assume that the two sides are striving for nuclear abolition after the years of tension, but it is arguably not the case. The SALT 2 treaty, which was signed in 1979 to put limits on the growth of strategic weapons, has still not been ratified, this was initially to do with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but the US senate has still not ratified the treaty. Also the START 2 treaty which called to cut the number of strategic weapons to half, however this is still to be ratified by the Russian Duma. Although with Russian presidential elections around the corner and a new Russian government in place, this may alter things for better or for worse. 122
             So whilst the two leaders seem to be going through the motions for nuclear disarmament, they still seem to be keeping the same cold war stances. Whilst many in the west advocate nuclear abolition: Britain has reduced its arsenal to the trident submarines and France has withdrawn its land based force, "neither Russia or the US have been willing to complement the slow and cumbersome process of treaty negotiations with actions that could be implemented far more rapidly". (JumpStart - www.stimson.org/pubs/policy/start.pdf). 80
             Both states still have...