Strategic Assessment

The September 11th attacks have had ramifications for a wide range of US strategic interests, and arms control is no exception. Prior to the attacks, the US administration had made it quite clear that it had every intention of going forward with its plans for National Missile Defense (NMD), even at the cost of withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. While it did not disregard the concerns raised by Russia and China regarding ballistic missile defenses, the US implied that it would take whatever steps necessary to deal with its perceived defense needs, in apparent disregard for existing global norms of arms control. While the administration still hoped to persuade Russia to accept its view on this issue, it was also clear that Russian opposition would not restrain US policy. A previous article that dealt with NMD (Strategic Assessment, 4:1, May 2001), noted that this US stance on NMD would likely strengthen the norm of self-help regarding international security, at the expense of cooperative security notions, which are embedded in the concept of arms control.