"A Walk in the Woods"
Glossary

ASAT (Antisatellite Weapon) – a weapon designed to destroy satellites in space.

acceptable losses – trade-offs of troops or resources for valued gains.

BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) – all active and passive measures designed to detect, identify, track, and defeat attacking ballistic missiles or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such an attack.

CEP (Circular Error Probable) – an indicator of the delivery accuracy of a weapon system, used as a factor in determining probable damage to a target.  It is the radius of a circle within which half of a missile’s projectiles are expected to fall or there is a 50% probability that a single projectile shall impact.

Chechnya – an oil rich Muslim state, part of the Russian republic until 1991, when it declared independence and set off a civil war.

Détente – a reference to the brief period of improved US-Soviet relations during the 1970’s, marked by cooperation between the two nations; replaced by notion of “peace through strength.”

Early warning – early detection of an enemy ballistic missile launch, usually by means of surveillance satellites and long-range radar.

ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) – a ballistic missile with a range from about 3,000 to 8,000 nautical miles.  The term ICBM is used only for land-based systems to differentiate them from submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

K chortu (pronounced “k-CHOR-too) – literally, “to the devil”; a Russian curse

Mega-deaths – a unit of one million deaths, used in estimating or predicting the fatalities that would occur in a nuclear war.

On site inspections – a method of arms control verification whereby representatives of an international organization or the parties to an agreement are allowed access to each other’s territory to view force deployments and weapons systems.

Politburo (pronounced PO-lit-byer-oh) – the principal policy-making and executive committee of the Soviet Union.

SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) – negotiations (1973-79) to set limits on the numbers and types of offensive strategic forces of the US and Soviet Union.

SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) – nicknamed “Star Wars,” it called for space-based missile defense system, and included the idea of acceptable losses.

START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) – negotiations for treaty began in 1982.  The START I agreement, signed in 1991, reduced Soviet arms by 35% and US arms by 25%.  In 1993, Presidents Yeltsin and Bush signed START II, prescribing further reductions in strategic nuclear forces, but that treaty has yet to be ratified by the Duma, or Russian legislature.

Siberia – the extensive region of the former Soviet Union frequently referred to as a place where one is sent as a punishment or mark of disfavor.

Test ban or moratorium – a treaty prohibiting nuclear testing.  The 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty precluded testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water, although undergound testing is not explicitly prohibited.

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