National Missile Defense: Opportunity or Threat

Abstract

sPrior to the election of 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush campaigned with promises to bolster United States national security and strengthen the military. An essential element of his strategy for enhanced security was a National Missile Defense (NMD) system to protect the American "homeland" from a ballistic missile attack. Bush felt that a combination of international and domestic factors had come together to give the country a unique opportunity to build and deploy such a system. Once in office, his administration moved aggressively to make this opportunity a reality. Critics of the NMD proposal, however, have been equally aggressive in their opposition and argue that the current initiative should be considered more of a "threat" to national security than an "opportunity." The purpose of this paper is to first analyze the Bush administration's NMD proposal, then determine if it will serve as an effective component of the United States National Security Strategy. After a brief review of the NMD proposal, the paper will evaluate the initiative's strengths and weaknesses, and then conclude with recommendations on the future of NMD.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA441752

Entities

People

  • P. G. Howe

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Ballistic Missiles
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Defense Systems
  • Foreign Relations
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Security
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • Ussr
  • War Colleges
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Missile Defense Systems.
  • Strategic Security Studies