Study Group At Law School Drafts Plan To Deter War

Improving communications between the US and the USSR through a new "crisis control system" to prevent accidental nuclear war was the chief recommendation of a Harvard study group report submitted to the government last week.

William Ury and Richard Smoke of the Law School's Nuclear Negotiation Project co-authored the study, entitled Beyond the Hotline, which was commissioned in 1982 by the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Ury said yesterday that they were asked to help develop crisis situation procedures for administrators "when negotiations are on the brink," said Ury.

The project's recommendations include plans for training the President and top administrators for crisis situations as well as increasing communication with the Soviets at all times.

The study concludes. Perhaps the most likely path to nuclear was today is through a crisis that escalates out of control because of miscalculation miscommunication of accident.

Arms reductions on themselves don't reduce the chance of a crisis, said Ury adding that Presidential and top advisors must be prepared to handle dangerous crisis with expertise.

The high stakes the high uncertainty of information and the limited options for reaction in the crisis situation require Presidential expertise in negotiation, he said.

According to Ury nuclear escalation results from a failure of negotiations.

In order to prepare American and Soviet leaders for an emergency the study group's major recommendations is the establishment of a nuclear crisis control center where both Soviet and American military officers would monitor potential crisis situations to avoid a military confrontation.

The group also outlined a Presidential crisis control seminar involving a "crisis game" to test and educate the President and his top advisors.

The report is currently "under evaluation" said a spokesman for the US Army Control and Department Agency.

The Harvard group gathered the information after examining 10 US-USSR crisis situations since the Cuban Missile Crisis and after questioning administrator about part negotiation problems, said Ury.

He added that the report may begin to "open the wedge" between the US and the USSR.

"We need new ideas, and anyone--Soviet or American, liberal of conservative--can sign on to this study," he said.

Smoke was unavailable for comment last night