26 November 2014

December 1, 2014 Conference on Operation RYAN and KGB/STASI Forecasting of Nuclear War

November 24, 2014

Forecasting Nuclear War: Stasi/KGB Intelligence Cooperation under Project RYaN

Between 1981 and 1989 the foreign intelligence branches of the Soviet KGB and the East German Ministry of State Security launched a combined effort to develop a system for detecting signs of an impending western nuclear first strike. Codenamed “Project RYaN”, this early-warning system constituted one part of the Soviet response to the perceived threat of a surprise “decapitation” strike by NATO nuclear forces.

Join us on December 1st as Bernd Schaefer, Nate Jones, and Benjamin Fischer discuss these newly translated sources and give unprecedented insight into the capabilities and fears of the Eastern Bloc intelligence services from the Able Archer ’83 War Scare to the end of the Cold War.

Professional Lecturer, The George Washington University

Nate Jones

Freedom of Information Act Coordinator for the National Security Archive

Benjamin Fischer 

Former Chief Historian of the Central Intelligence Agency

CWIHP is a part of the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program


Wilson Center

Ronald Reagan Building and

International Trade Center

One Woodrow Wilson Plaza

1300 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20004

No comments: