Conservatism And The Post-cold War U.s. National Missile Defense Plan

This thesis analyzes the National Missile Defense (NMD) project of the United States after the cold war, from the angle of conservatism.The adjustment of U.S. NMD project has always been closely related to the global strategic stability and international security. After the cold war, the domestic politics in U.S. has greatly determined the evolution of NMD project, in which conservatism has played an important role. Based on the fundamental principles and security concept of conservatism, this thesis analyzes the domestic debates on the U.S. NMD policies in the periods of the first Bush Administration, Clinton Administration and the second Bush Administration, and studies the influence and limits of conservatism. This can help us deepen the understanding of domestic politics behind the U.S. defense policy and make preparations for the future deployment of NMD in America. It is also conducive to improve China's current studies on missile defense and conservatism. Apart from the preface and epilogue, this thesis has four chapters in all. The preface gives a brief introduction to the significance, status quo, logic framework and innovations of this thesis. Chapter 1 illuminates the definition, fundamental principles and security concept of conservatism, laying the theoretical foundation for the whole thesis. Chapters 2 to 4 are historical studies and comparative analysis, including the periods of the first Bush Administration, Clinton Administration and the second Bush Administration. The epilogue sums up the previous chapters, as well as provides some proposals to China's diplomacy.Innovations of this thesis are mainly in the following aspects:First, this thesis provides a new angle for studying conservatism. Second, this thesis is conducive to deepen the research of conservatism in the field of security and defense. Third, methods of quantitative study and dialectical analysis are used in this thesis, which makes its results more scientific and complete. The last but not the least, the epilogue puts forward new ideas on China's possible responses. All these are quite original.