Theater ballistic missile defense: new United States strategic requirements and the ABM Treaty

Abstract

This thesis examines the continued utility of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty for U.S. national security interests and reviews the value of the treaty given the changing post-Cold War environment. The origins of the ABM Treaty are reviewed to put the current ABM Treaty debate in perspective. Other issues examined include the U.S. domestic politics of the ABM Treaty, the impact of the treaty on the strategic defense and nuclear weapons policies of Britain, France and China and the current stakes the United States and Russia may have in the treaty. This thesis concludes that the ABM Treaty remains useful for the national security interests of the United States in the post-Cold War world and should be maintained as currently written. Self-imposed U.S. testing restraints should be unilaterally revised to reflect modern strategic ballistic missile ranges and velocities; the treaty should not be multilateralized and issues of national missile defense (NMD) and TMD should be kept completely separate. (MM)