Treaty Interpretation by the Executive Branch: The Abm Treaty and “Star Wars” Testing and Development

Abstract

In the latest interpretation of the 13-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty)—one that stunned the arms control community—the Reagan administration announced on October 6, 1985, that the United States is authorized under the Treaty to develop and test advanced technology, spacebased weapons systems such as lasers and particle beam weapons. According to the administration, the ABM Treaty places no restrictions, short of actual deployment, on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the so-called Star Wars program. Although Secretary of State George Shultz has stated that the United States will continue to exercise restraint in the SDI program by limiting the development and testing of weapons according to a “restrictive” interpretation of the ABM Treaty, the question remains whether a legally sound basis exists for the administration’s “permissive” interpretation of the Treaty.