akota, one may ask? The missiles there are protecting the rest of their nuclear arsenal. (Teller 1987, 20) Why does the USA not just dissolve or pull out of its association with the ABM treaty? This is because the ABM is an important settlement, a cornerstone of strategic stability, as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung described it. (Knicker-bocker 2001) ABM kept both the United States and the Soviets from firing on each other, because of the knowledge that this would bring on what Robert McNamara coined mutually assured destruction, or MAD. (Teller 1987, 20) A major concern that all people should have if the United States reneges on its pledge to the ABM, is the possible breakdown of all Russo-American nuclear policies. According to an editorial by William D. Hartung in the March 12, 2001 edition of The Nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has flatly stated that a US breakout from the treaty would call the entire network of US-Russian arms agreements into question. (Vol. 272 No.10, 4)A final reason why NMD should be scrapped is the fact that other states may be compelled to stockpile nuclear weapons in response to the United States being more impervious to an enemy attack. The equation and logic of this is simple. The more mis-siles it takes to penetrate a defense shield, the more the enemy is going to manufacture. This would be a detriment to Arms Race Stability, which is the situation where the arming decisions of one side does not provide incentive for the other side to escalate its arms acquisitions. (Hulme 1999) As an example of this statement, look at Russia. If the United States were to successfully develop a NMD program, Russia will either have to build up its offensive nuclear missiles even more, or develop a missile shield similar to the NMD. This would be a never-ending cycle. As better missiles are built, better shields will be built, causing better missiles to be built, and so on. The truth is that the ABM trea...
