| This study analyzes the debate over the deployment of a missile defense system during three different historical junctures to determine the role that argument framing played in conditioning the controversy. Three primary policy documents were selected for the study: (1) President Ronald Reagan's March 1983 address to the nation, (2) The 1998 Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, and (3) President George W. Bush's statement withdrawing the United States from the ABM Treaty. In order to determine how the argument frames established by the primary documents influenced the public debate among national policymakers, articles from the Washington Quarterly, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs in the years preceding and following the publication of each of the key statements were analyzed. The study concluded that the argument frames constructed by the proponents of missile defense controlled the debate by establishing concrete, memorable, and imminent threats to the national security of the United States and that the opponents of missile defense failed to employ an effective rhetorical strategy to counter this frame. |
