Whither SDI (Strategic Defensive Initiative): Strategic Defenses in the Next Administration.

摘要

This document examines the legacy of strategic defenses the next president will inherit from the Reagan administration. Concentrating on SDI, it describes the programmatic, budgetary, arms control, and political contours of the strategic defense agenda that the new president is likely to confront. It then considers the options he will face and plots a course he should take. This essay is intended to stimulate and structure debate about the future of strategic defenses. An earlier version of this paper was prepared for a Council on Foreign Relations study group on the Arms Control Agenda of the Next Administration. Since it was initially drafted in spring 1988, the politics of SDI have changed with a speed that few could have predicted. Abruptly and unexpectedly, SDI all but disappeared from the political debate at precisely the time when a multitude of candidates were vying for their parties' nominations, and then the two nominees were seeking to define and distinguish their positions. Despite these changed circumstances, this document should be of interest to those who are concerned with how developments in strategic defense bear on nuclear policy, programs, and arms control. (kr)