May session of the Seminar on the theory, history and historiography of international relations was dedicated to the presentation on "The Secret History of the 1983 Able Archer 83 Nuclear War Scare", the book of Nate Jones, the Director of the Freedom of Information Act Project for the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the Odessa State University's Nuclear Proliferation International History Project international research fellow. The meeting was host by the Odessa House of Scientists on May 31, 2017.

Declassified documents show that in November 1983, Soviet nuclear forces went on an "unprecedented" alert in response to a realistic NATO nuclear exercise called Able Archer 83.

After launching Operation RYaN to nervously monitor NATO nuclear activity, Soviet intelligence agencies in Western Europe received flash telegrams reporting alarming activity on U.S. bases.

In response, the Soviets began readying their nuclear forces in preparation for a western nuclear attack. The tensions decreased after a US Air Force Officer Leonard Perroots chose not to escalate the posture of NATO forces in the face of the Soviet Alert. But the results had an impact on the Cold War and US-Soviet relations. According to declassified documents, President Reagan described the events as "really scary" and they had an impact on his subsequent rapprochement with the Soviet Union.