Renewed interest in crisis management is caused by a growing recognition that a failure of communication between the superpowers in the face of a crisis provoked by some third party could issue in a nuclear war, other causes of this renewed interest are the fear of miscalculation and runaway escalation if the US and Soviet Union are drawn into a regional war in which each had vital interests and a concern that a missile might be fired on either side by accident or without proper authorization despite precautions. The authors, stating that crisis prevention should be viewed as an objective, not as a strategy, support the establishment of a joint US-Soviet nuclear risk control center designed to carry out four functions: (1) to facilitate communications between the two countries, (2) to avert nuclear confrontations during periods of accelerating tension, (3) to serve as an exchange of confidence building information during normal periods, and (4) to serve as a joint management center to plan for responses to terrorist or other third party group