October 8, 2007 :: Arms Control Today :: Analysis
Daryl G. Kimball, writing for the October edition of
Arms Control Today, criticized current missile defense plans and instead argues for a new strategy to reduce the threat posed by offensive missiles. Missile defense poses serious problems, Kimball argues, because "even if [they] can be developed and pass operationally realistic testing, foes can always counter by building sufficient numbers of offensive ballistic missiles to overwhelm a system." Instead, the U.S. should instead focus on closer collaboration with Russia to reduce offensive weapon stockpiles and prevent them from increasing their nuclear stockpiles should the U.S. deploy a missile defense system. Additionally, the U.S. should focus on preventing short and medium range missiles, both because the technology is better developed and because those defenses are less provocative to other global powers like Russia. Lastly, Kimball recommends the U.S. work to enforce and expand the support for the International Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, which "obliges states to exchange information on missile holdings and testing and exercise restraint with respect to their ballistic missile programs, could become the blueprint for a binding set of limitations on the most destabilizing types of missiles."
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