Commentary: The Missile Defense Agency must be free to move quickly and with limited restrictions – By Robert Joseph (Defense News) / Sept 15 2021
Two decades ago, President George W. Bush announced the United States’ intention to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. That treaty, negotiated with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, prohibited us from protecting our territory and population from ballistic missile attacks. The prospect of mutual annihilation would, according to the proponents, reduce the incentive for attack, thereby assuring strategic stability.
But Bush questioned both the morality and logic of this balance of terror. The Soviet Union had dissolved and new threats had emerged, such as North Korea armed with long-range missiles and a growing nuclear arsenal. As a special assistant to the president, I was tasked with developing a strategy to implement the president’s goal.
The first task was to pave the way for treaty withdrawal. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the U.S. withdrawal was not a threat to Russia and that Moscow would continue its offensive nuclear reductions. This statement rejected the prevailing myth that defenses cause arms races. In the end, the treaty went away quietly, mourned only by the ideological arms control community.
