Transatlantic perspectives on extended integrated air defense

Abstract

As part of a wider counterproliferation policy to diminish the threat posed by ballistic missiles, the United States has in recent years allotted substantial resources to active defense measures. With the current Democratic administration and Republicans in Congress at loggerheads over the deployment of a national shield in particular, missile defense issues are causing palpable controversy within the United States. However, although the American debate tends to revolve around opportunity costs, technical feasibility, and potential repercussions for strategic‐arms control, beyond the Atlantic matters are more complex still. Not only do Western European threat perceptions vary, but also, besides the awesome technological and financial challenges involved, missile defense poses interlocking political, moral, legal, operational, and commercial dilemmas, many of which can be resolved only through international consensus. This article seeks to examine this quandary, several aspects of which have been badly neglected.