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 […]
On 25th Anniversary of “Star Wars,” Cheney’s Missile Defense Claims Don’t Add Up
by Kingston Reif On March 11, 2008, Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a Heritage Foundation dinner commemorating the 25th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), labeled by critics as “Star Wars.” Cheney used the occasion to reiterate five Bush administration talking points about the need for missile defense: In 1972, […]
Star Wars Turns 25 Years Old, but Effective and Capable Missile Defense Still Elusive
by Robert G. Gard and John Isaacs On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan revived the effort, first launched in the 1950s, to defend the United States against an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack by producing a “shield that could protect us from nuclear missiles just as a roof protects a family from rain.” He called […]
