Nikolai N. SOKOV is senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP). His areas of research include missiles and nuclear weapons, arms control as well as security and military strategy. He has regional expertise in the Kosovo crisis, Russia and the Newly Independent States. Beginning in 1981, Dr. Sokov worked at the Institute of US and Canadian Studies and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow. From 1987 to 1992 he worked at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union and later Russia, and participated in START I and START II negotiations as well as in a number of summit and ministerial meetings. Dr. Sokov has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and the Soviet equivalent of a Ph.D., Candidate of Historical Sciences degree from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1981.