The Impact of Future Strategic Defenses on Strategic Stability.

Abstract

The study provides an analysis of stability issues associated with developing and deploying strategic defenses. Strategic stability is defined in the context of current US and Soviet defense policy, and stability criteria are developed in terms of the abstract concepts of crisis and arms race instabilities and in terms of more pragmatic issues of system survivability and cost effectiveness. The study offers a stability assessment of some generic SDI options based on the criteria above. The study concludes that defensive system survivability is a key stabilizing factor regardless of the level of defensive capability which the SDI process may deliver, while defensive capability is more important in determining whether a nation can adopt a countervailing, war-fighting, or defense emphasis strategy.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA166636

Entities

People

  • Henry L. Pugh Jr

Organizations

  • Air Command and Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arms Control
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • California
  • Cost Effectiveness
  • Defense Systems
  • Deployment
  • Deterrence
  • Directed Energy Weapons
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • Materials
  • North America
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Particle Beams
  • Security
  • Strategic Defense Initiative
  • United States
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Strategic Security Studies