Missile defense for America: Third World proliferation challenges and United States national security policy

This thesis reassesses America's need for a national anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. The risk that Third World proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) poses to the United States is reassessed in light of the improving global climate for technology transfers.;The Clinton Administration's decision to focus on theater-based defenses leaves the United States vulnerable to missile attack, and fails to provide adequate protection for America's allies and its military deployments abroad against missiles armed with WMD. Recent attempts made by the Administration to re-instate a narrow interpretation of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty may undermine America's future deployment of national missile defenses and even the Administration's own Theater Missile Defense Initiative. An effective political strategy for fielding a limited ABM system to protect the United States consists of fielding coastal defenses first, followed by advanced ground interceptors later, and lastly, space-based interceptors.