Content area
Full text
William T. Lee, The ABM Treaty Charade: A Study in Elite Illusion and Delusion. Washington, DC: Council for Social and Economic Studies, 1997, 165 pp.
DESPITE THE END OF THE COLD WAR, debate about the relevance of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) continues to assume central importance in the US/Russian strategic relationship. In the United States the perceived value of the ABMT to US security has once again exposed deep divisions among government officials, Congressmen and academics.
Concluded in 1972 with the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Arms (SALT I), the ABMT was intended to prevent a defensive arms race. This race, treaty advocates argued, was based on technologies which were uncertain at best, would be astronomically expensive, would fuel an offensive arms build-up and would be destabilising in that even a partially effective missile defence could threaten the ability of the adversary to ensure retaliation, thus increasing the incentive to pre-empt in a crisis.
Hailed as the 'cornerstone' of the arms control process by its advocates, the ABMT has been denounced vehemently by its critics. William T. Lee falls firmly into the latter category. As a former Soviet analyst with US intelligence, although not responsible for changing US nuclear targeting strategy from industry and population to the denial of Soviet war aims as is claimed in the `About the Author' section, Lee presents his argument forcefully from the outset. Illustrative of this is his statement that `the ABM Treaty never was a valid contract, and the entire strategic "arms...