By Lt. Gen. Robert Gard and Kingston Reif Published in Defense News on October 20, 2008 Despite the Bush administration’s investment of an estimated $60 billion since 2001, U.S. national missile defense continues to be an unnecessary and counterproductive enterprise. Testing objectives consistently are not met, cost overruns and scheduling delays are rampant, and relations […]
Obama vs. McCain: A Side-By-Side Comparison on Arms Control
BARACK OBAMA JOHN MCCAIN Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) and New Nuclear Weapons “I do not support a premature decision to produce the RRW.” “I would only support the development of any new type of nuclear weapon that is absolutely essential for the viability of our deterrent, that results in making possible further decreases […]
Russia Looms over U.S.-Poland Missile Defense Agreement
by Kingston Reif After more than 18 months of hesitation, the United States and Poland on August 20 suddenly signed an agreement to place American missile defense interceptors on Polish territory. According to the Associated Press, parliamentary and presidential approval also appears likely, though no date has been given for when this might occur. AFTER […]
Missile Defense in Europe Falls to Next Administration
by Kingston Reif INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Since withdrawing the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, the Bush administration has moved to create a missile defense system to defend against long-range ballistic missile threats from rogue states. In 2004, the United States began deploying interceptors in Alaska and California to defend against North […]
Growing Economic Ties Better Deterrence
by Kingston Reif Published in the Washington Times, May 29, 2008 James T. Hackett’s column on India’s strategic posture suffers from two major problems (“India’s missile power lifts off,” Commentary, May 22). First, emphasizing the threat to India posed by China obscures the fact that China is set to overtake the United States as India’s […]