IssuesMatch

Reduce Spending On Missile Defense ("Star Wars")

 
BACKGROUND

President Reagan in the 1980s proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, popularly known as the ‘Star Wars’ Missile Defense). It has been under development in the US since then. Some aspects of testing and deployment of SDI would breach the ABM Treaty and the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. In particular, deploying a missile defense system only within the US would breach the ABM Treaty, but the US and Russia have issued numerous statements advocating a ‘global protection system’ as well as ‘theater defense systems.’ The ‘Aegis defense system’ is the Navy’s existing ship-based anti-missile system.

ABM Treaty 

The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 is an agreement that neither the USA nor the USSR would build any nation-wide missile defense, on the theory that ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ was the best means to avoid nuclear war. Russia and the 3 other post-Soviet nuclear states have agreed to abide by the USSR’s limitations within the ABM Treaty.

‘Loose Nukes’ and Weapons of Mass Destruction

Concern over nuclear war has been replaced by concern over proliferation of nuclear technology and other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs, referring to nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons). The concern is that terrorists or ‘rogue states’ will unleash WMDs on the US or elsewhere.

‘Loose Nukes’ refer to the sale or theft of nuclear weapons from the former USSR. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) addresses loose nukes, and is the primary arms control treaty under negotiation today. Existing treaties address ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), both of which can reach the US; recent negotiations include non-missile nuclear threats.

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 

The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty intends to limit nuclear proliferation. As of April 1999, it has been signed by 152 countries and ratified by 32, but requires 44 ratifications to enter into force of law. Ratification implies that a nation will not advance its nuclear technology beyond its present status. India & Pakistan, who both exploded nuclear devices in 1998, have promised to sign the Treaty now that their testing is complete.

Country	Nuclear Status	Signed
China	400 warheads; at most 50 on ICBMs; 45 nuclear tests	9/24/96; unratified.
France	450 warheads; 210 nuclear tests	9/24/96; ratified 4/6/98
India	Conducted tests, 1998	Unsigned
Iran	Seeking nuclear capability	9/24/96
Iraq	Seeking nuclear capability	Unsigned
Israel	Unacknowledged nuclear capability	9/25/96; unratified.
North Korea	Frozen development program	Unsigned
Pakistan	Conducted tests, 1998	Unsigned
Russia	23,000 warheads; 715 nuclear tests; 3,630 warheads on ICBMs, including missiles in Belarus, Ukraine, & Kazakhstan	9/24/96; unratified.
South Africa	Developed weapons but relinquished them in 1993	9/24/96; unratified.
United Kingdom	260 warheads; 45 nuclear tests.	9/24/96; ratified 4/6/98
United States	1,030 nuclear tests and 12,000 warheads, including 2,000 ICBMs & 3,450 SLBMs.	9/24/96; rejected 10/13/99.