Defending America

The Case for Limited National Missile Defense

James M. Lindsay, Michael E. O'Hanlon

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9780815798675
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: National Security
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Arms control and missile defense are once again at the forefront of the American national security agenda. Not surprisingly, the debate has broken down along well-worn lines. Arms control advocates dismiss the idea of missile defense as a dangerous and costly folly. Missile defense advocates argue that the U.S. should move aggressively to defend itself against missile attack. With clear and lively prose free of partisan rhetoric, Defending America provides reliable, factual analysis of the missile defense debate. Written for a general audience, it assesses the current and likely future missile threat to the United States, examines relevant technologies, and suggests how America's friends and foes would react to a decision to build a national missile defense. Lindsay and O'Hanlon reject calls for large-scale systems as well as proposals to do nothing, instead arguing for a limited national missile defense.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Abbreviations
• Chapter One: Defending America
• Chapter Two: Missile Defense: Concepts and Systems
• Chapter Three: The Threat
• Chapter Four: Missile Defense Programs and Architectures
• Chapter Five: The International Politics of Missile Defense
• Chapter Six: Missile Defense and American Security
• Appendix A: Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and Related Documents
• Appendix B: Excerpts from the DCI National Intelligence Estimate
• Appendix C: Excerpts from the 1998 Rumsfeld Commission Report
• Appendix D: Excerpts from the 1999 National Intelligence Estimate
• Notes
• Index