| ID | 072790 |
| Title Proper | America |
| Other Title Information | escaping the legacy of the ABM treaty |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Kubbig, Bernd W |
| Publication | 2005. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article traces the development of the post-Cold War American discourse on ballistic missile defences from its arms control supportive stance during the first Clinton administration to the abandonment of the ABM Treaty in 2002. It shows how military primacy and the absence of a peer competitor enabled conservative opponents of the ABM Treaty to change the discourse on National Missile Defense. Especially after the landslide victory of the Republicans in the 1994 congressional elections, national missile defence became politically driven, reducing the influence of more moderate forces on the debate. The 1998 Rumsfeld Report and the missile test by North Korea in the same year led to the Senate vote in 1999 to go ahead with a national missile shield. Neoconservatives dominated the agenda and the ABM Treaty was doomed. The article concludes with a review of the current missile defence testing programme. It suggests that contrary to the expectation of realizing post-Cold War primacy, the limits of technology have put more formidable shackles on American unilateralism than the constraints of the ABM Treaty Neoconservatives thought to escape from. |
| `In' analytical Note | Contemporary Security Policy Vol. 26, No. 3; Dec 2005: p410-430 |
| Journal Source | Contemporary Security Policy Vol: 26 No 3 |
| Key Words | United States ; Post-Cold War Period ; Ballistic Missile Defence ; National Missile Defence |