Policy implications of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

摘要

This study reviews critical policy aspects of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), commonly known as "Star Wars." The initiative was unveiled by former President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and remains the object of considerable rancorous debate. Specific topics include: the technological feasibility of proposed components and architectures; the compatibility of the proposed systems with existing and proposed arms control agreements, with special emphasis upon the ABM Treaty, Outer Space Treaty, the Defense and Space Treaty, and the START Treaty; the compatibility of proposed systems with classical warfare doctrine and the four modern strategic nuclear doctrines of Massive Retaliation, Assured Destruction, Countervailing and Flexible Response; the economics of strategic defense including an assessment of overall governmental spending, of the suballocation for defense, and of the feasibility of defensive systems which are cost-effective at the margin; and, in summary, an assessment of the New Strategic Concept which balances arms control, offensive forces, and defensive forces. This dissertation falls within the realm of defense policy analysis in that it attempts to determine whether the administration's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, as well as the long-term strategic defensive systems which are derived from SDI research, constitute efficient, desirable allocation of scarce government resources--especially in a period of seemingly relaxed superpower tensions and numerous demands upon those resources. As many of the proposed configurations are not yet developed, their exact cost estimates and weapons system efficiencies must be estimated. This requires the conduct of first-order analysis based upon reasonable assumptions which will indicate the feasibility of proposed concepts and systems. As the ultimate decisions regarding deployment of strategic defenses may depend neither entirely upon the systems effectiveness, nor its costs, special consideration is given to strategy and an examination of the possibility of a negotiated transition to deployment of defenses.