Standing Consultative News Today

Beware of a U.S.-Russia Deal on Missile Defense

The Clinton Administration has reached a "framework agreement" with Russia to resolve Itwo long- standing disputes over the future and scope of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The ABM Treaty all but bars the United States from deploying defenses against long-range ballistic missiles. The agreement with Russia would do two things: 0 Name which republics of the now-defunct Soviet Union are subject to the treaty; and 0 Define a new dividing line between defenses against long...

The numerous restrictions of the ABM Treaty, when taken together, comprise a blanket prohibition against fielding an effective missile defense system.

The President's Important Choice on Missile Defense

The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is at the heart of the debate on ballistic missile defense. Whether to proceed more quickly or more slowly to deploy missile defenses, and in what way, or whether to pro- ceed at all, is determined by how the ABM Treaty is viewed. The strategic assumptions underlying the treaty, forged during the Cold War, are very much alive in the Clinton Administration. They drive the Administration's approach not only to missile defense policy, but also to arms control ...