End of the Shield Delusion: A return to rationality in US foreign policy

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:



End of the shield delusion
The decision to pull out of the missile defence shield plan for eastern Europe marks a return to rationality in US foreign policy

Michael Boyle
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 September 2009


President Obama's decision to cancel the planned missile shield for eastern Europe has sent its advocates among the Republican right into fits of rage, but his decision is in fact a triumph of common sense.

The missile shield plan of the Bush administration held out the hope of absolute protection from attack against the US and its allies. This was a dangerous and misleading illusion which, if realised, would have called into question the strategic defence balance in Europe.

The fundamental problem with the missile shield was not that it was too expensive, although it certainly was, or that its reliability was questionable. The shield was a problem because it appeared to violate one of the fundamental preconditions of deterrence: mutual susceptibility to attack.

As Thomas Schelling pointed out long ago, deterrence is premised on the notion that both parties can inflict harm, sometimes at unacceptably high levels, on one another. During the cold war, the fact that the US and Soviet Union understood their cities were vulnerable to attack made the strategic balance stable. Robust deterrence essentially redirected their rivalry into subversion and support for opposing parties in third world conflicts, but it kept the threat of nuclear war between the superpowers at bay. This balance of terror may have been morally questionable, but it was also remarkably effective. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/sep/18/missile-defence-obama