Despite the strained, and apparently deteriorating, relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, contacts between Americans and Russians are continuing on many fronts, especially in the field of scholarly dialogue and exchange. In 1981, three scholarly conferences between American and Soviet scholars, organized by three American institutions and three institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, were held in the Soviet Union under continuing institutional arrangements-between the Institute of International Affairs, University of California (Berkeley), and the Soviet Institute of Oriental Studies, between the Institute for SinoSoviet Studies, George Washington University, and the Soviet Institute of Far Eastern Studies, and between the Foreign Policy Research Institute (Philadelphia), and the Soviet Institute of the USA and Canada. This was the fourth conference in the first cooperative enterprise, and the second in the second and third relationships. All were carefully planned meetings, featuring scholarly papers, extensive and frank discussions and exchanges, and close personal relationships. The participating scholars, many of whom have had responsible roles in national and international affairs, were of sufficiently high stature and reputation to command at least some attention by policymakers in their countries, and perhaps elsewhere as well. All are seriously interested in scholarly exchanges, in a deeper understanding of the viewpoints and perspectives of their colleagues in both countries, in pinpointing and clarifying points of disagreement, and in seeking areas of mutual interest and mutual agreement.