You know that the U.S. too (and the West more generally, of course) has "tightly-knit academic communities" to discuss things such as the concerns that might come up in high-level state negotiations? In fact, the broad community of "open source intelligence" almost invariably has a markedly better handle on those issues than high-profile parts of USG that ought to theoretically benefit from secrecy and non-public info - despite common claims to the contrary!