ABSTRACT
President Bush’s re-orientation of the SDI programme to face more limited threats, GPALS (Chapter 8), was short-lived. Bill Clinton entered the White House in January 1993 unconvinced that a missile defence of North America was required. As a result of the Gulf War, Theater Missile Defence (TMD) for deployed forces and regional allies was supported by most shades of political opinion. But the new Administration saw no threat to the United States itself other than the long-standing missile capabilities of Russia and China, for whom a mix of deterrence, arms control and political engagement seemed an appropriate response.2 Accordingly, the SDIO now became the Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation (BMDO), focused on the shorter-range, ‘theatre’ threats and with only a ‘hedge’ programme of basic research relevant to a limited National Missile Defense (NMD).
