National Missile Defense and the Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

摘要

If U.S. national missiledefense (NMD) were only about countering ballistic missiles deployed byrogue states, then whether to deploy limited NMD would be a “normal” nationalsecurity issue. The military-technical question would concern feasibility:Would the missile defense work against the small missile forces that a fewstates may eventually deploy? The military-political questions would concernthe risks to the United States of being vulnerable to rogue-state missiles andthe amount Washington should be willing to pay for insurance against theserisks.What makes NMD special is its unavoidable connection to U.S. strategic nuclearpolicy and to the United States’ political relationships with Russia andChina.