Dr. Nikolai Sokov

Senior Fellow
"This is a nice short quote"

Areas of Research

  • Arms control, disarmament, and international security
  • Theory and practice of international regimes
  • Comparative foreign and defence policy and military strategies
  • Nuclear non-proliferation: NPT, safeguards, and international cooperation for non-proliferation
  • Great power relations: US-Russia-China, alliance relations, and NATO
  • The nexus between domestic and foreign policy

Background

Dr. Nikolai Sokov was born in Moscow. He graduated from the Department of History of Moscow State University in 1981 and subsequently worked at the Institute of US and Canadian Studies (1981-86) and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (1985-87), both at the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences in 1986.

From 1987 to 1992, Dr. Sokov worked at the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the USSR/Russian Federation. He participated in INF, START I, START II and other arms control negotiations as well as numerous summits and ministerial meetings.

Dr. Sokov joined the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in 1996. Between 2011 and 2014 and since 2019 he has worked at the VCDNP.

Dr. Sokov has published widely, including two dozen books and monographs and more than 200 articles. He is regularly invited to speak at various conferences and other public events and has served as a consultant to many international organisations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, as well as US government agencies, i.e. the Departments of State, Defense, and Energy, and various committees of the US Congress.

He taught full-semester at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and short courses at Tomsk State University (Russia) and Odessa National University (Ukraine).

Education

Dr. Sokov was a graduate student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor between 1992 and 1996, and was awarded a PhD in Political Science in 1996.

Related Content

Prospects for Nuclear Verification in Times of Uncertainty and Crises 
The VCDNP and the research consortium VeSPoTec convened an expert-level workshop to examine the future of nuclear verification amidst growing times of uncertainty.
10 February 2026 • 
End of New START: Short- and Medium-Term Options
VCDNP Senior Fellow Dr. Nikolai Sokov analyses what will be lost with the passing of New START, as well as the proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue observing the Treaty’s quantitative and qualitative limits in the absence of a verification regime.
14 January 2026 • 
Fall 2025 Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Short Course
The VCDNP hosted its 30th intensive short course on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, training 24 diplomats, officials, and other practitioners representing 23 countries.
14 October 2025 • 
Lessons Learned and Not Learned from Cold War Arms Control Negotiations
VCDNP Senior Fellow Dr. Nikolai Sokov reflects on lessons about arms control from the 1970s and 1980s in a short paper. Some lessons learned then could be usefully applied to the present day, others were missed and need to be re-learned.
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