Chapter 4. Alternative futures

Article Abstract:

There are three main ways in which US-Russian relations could develop with regard to counterproliferation and missile defense. It is possible that the US could unilaterally withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in order to deploy national missile defense. Alternatively, a degree of mutual accommodation may be reached, with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty being modified to allow limited national missile defense. This development could form the basis for a third possible development, in which progress would be made towards an international regime including the main elements of President Boris Yeltsin's 1992 Global Protection System proposal.

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Chapter 2. Missile proliferation: threat and U.S. response

Article Abstract:

The US has given considerable attention to the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction since the collapse of the Soviet empire, the Persian Gulf war and proliferation developments since the early 1990s. It regards the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and advanced delivery systems as a serious challenge to national security, making it vulnerable to threats of deterrence and coercion. The US administration has committed itself to preserving the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, but has made it clear that the deployment of limited National Missile Defense depends on the proliferation threat.

Analysis, International relations

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Chapter 6. Summary and conclusion

Article Abstract:

The differing national security concerns of the US and Russia have been reflected in the respective approaches of these two countries to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to missile defense. Indeed, the future of the US-Russian relationship as a whole may well be determined by how the two countries address missile defense and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in the near future. It is vital to reach an initial agreement on the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and ballistic missile defense issues, thus avoiding stalemate in the bilateral relationship.

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Chapter 1. The character of the problem. Chapter 3. Current Russian objections to U.S. NMD and ABM Treaty revision

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